Egypt along with Red Cross Join Search for Captive Remains in Gaza

Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have verified.

The Israeli government announced that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

The group has transferred fifteen out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group stated it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to start return the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will intervene".

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

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

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

Egypt, along with Qatar 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 greeted positively by relatives, desperate to give them a proper burial.

The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages.

Hamas does not transfer its detainees - living or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and transfers them to the IDF.

But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is new.

After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been destroyed completely.

Hamas says it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas was aware of where the remains were.

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

Trump shared on his social media account on Saturday that action would be implemented if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.

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

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

• Palestinian minors dying as they await Israeli authorities to enable relocations
• The US Secretary of State states lots of nations prepared to join the region's security force
• Recent photographs show Israeli control line deeper into the territory than anticipated

On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help secure the truce under the former president's initiative.

"We are in command of our safety, 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 said talking at the beginning of a government session.

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

This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the nation's participation.

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

Israel initiated a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about twelve hundred people and took 251 additional persons as captives.

At least 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the region from that time, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.