🔗 Share this article

Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to search for the remains of hostages who perished captured during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been allowed to search beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has handed over fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The group stated it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

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

An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the northern, southern and east 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 entry of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The news will be greeted positively by family members, eager to give them a proper burial.

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

The organization does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.

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

After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israel, the UN calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been destroyed completely.

The group claims it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

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

"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson commented.

The former president shared on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

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

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

• Palestinian minors dying as they wait for Israeli authorities to permit relocations
• The US Secretary of State says many nations willing to join the region's peacekeeping unit
• New images reveal Israeli control line further into the territory than anticipated

On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would decide which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in the region to help secure the truce under the former president's initiative.

"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said talking at the start of a government session.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "numerous nations" had offered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group killed about twelve hundred individuals and captured 251 others as hostages.

At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in the region since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.