🔗 Share this article

Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the teams have been permitted to search beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has cautions the organization to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will intervene".

An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "demarcation line".

The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the north, southern and east of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israel has not authorized the access of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.

The news will be welcomed by family members, eager to provide a dignified funeral.

The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.

The organization does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the IDF.

But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been destroyed completely.

Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings destroyed by the IDF in the region.

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

On the weekend, an official representative said that the organization was aware of where the remains were.

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

Trump posted on his social media account on Saturday that action would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.

"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can hand over at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he remarked.

He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."

• Palestinian children losing their lives as they wait for Israeli authorities to permit evacuations
• Rubio says many nations prepared to participate in Gaza security force
• Recent photographs show Israeli control line further into Gaza than anticipated

On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed international force in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

"We are in command of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that we will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of nations" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.

This appeared to be a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israel had vetoed the nation's involvement.

It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be stationed without an agreement with Hamas.

Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as captives.

No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in the region from that time, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.