🔗 Share this article

Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the remains of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to search past the referred to as "yellow line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

The group has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has cautions the organization to start return the bodies "promptly, or the additional nations participating in this great peace will intervene".

An Israeli spokesperson indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to find the remains, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the search past the "demarcation line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the north, south and east of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

Until now, Israel has not approved the access of these crews.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.

The news will be welcomed by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of captives.

The organization does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas knew where the bodies were.

"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson said.

The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

"Some of the bodies are difficult to access, but others they can hand over at present and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.

Trump continued: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this with great attention."

• Palestinian children dying as they wait for Israeli authorities to permit evacuations
• Rubio states lots of countries prepared to participate in the region's peacekeeping unit
• New images reveal demarcation zone deeper into the territory than anticipated

On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would decide which international troops it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in Gaza to help secure the truce under Trump's plan.

"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that we will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "numerous nations" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the nation's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an agreement with the organization.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as hostages.

No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.