Egyptian authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Effort for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip

Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the area under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.

The group has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The group stated it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

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

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the search beyond the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israel has not authorized the entry of these crews.

Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town earlier this month.

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

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

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

But the entry of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is new.

After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israel, the UN calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas claims it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

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

"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages," the representative 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 promptly.

"A portion of the remains are hard to reach, but others they can hand over at present and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their disarming," he remarked.

He continued: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."

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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

"We are in control of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he said talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had offered to be part of the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.

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 stationed without an agreement with Hamas.

Israel launched a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and captured 251 others as hostages.

At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.