Egypt and International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Search for Hostage Bodies in Gaza

Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been permitted to operate beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the region controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has handed over 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has warned the organization to start return the bodies "quickly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will take action".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search beyond the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.

Until now, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of these crews.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.

The development will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a proper burial.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.

Hamas does not transfer its detainees - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is new.

After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

The group says it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of structures destroyed by the IDF in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On the weekend, an official representative stated that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.

"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the remains of our hostages," the spokesperson said.

Trump posted on his social media account on the weekend that action would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

"Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their disarming," he said.

Trump continued: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am watching this very closely."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.

"We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he declared speaking at the start of a government session.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the country's involvement.

It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.

The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in the territory in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 68,519 have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.