🔗 Share this article

Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been permitted to search beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in Gaza.

Hamas has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has warned Hamas to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".

An Israeli spokesperson indicated the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, southern and eastern of Gaza that Israel withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

Until now, Israel has not approved the access of such teams.

Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.

The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to provide a dignified funeral.

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

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

But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams 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 eighty-four percent of the area has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas claims it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

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 bodies were.

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

Trump shared on his social media account on the weekend that action would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned quickly.

"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 said.

Trump continued: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely."

• Palestinian children losing their lives as they wait for Israel to permit relocations
• The US Secretary of State says lots of countries willing to join Gaza security force
• New images show Israeli control line deeper into Gaza than anticipated

On the weekend, the Israeli leader announced Israel would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous nations" had offered to be involved in the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.

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

It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.

The Israeli military launched a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred people and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.

No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.