🔗 Share this article

Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the remains of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The authorities in Israel announced that the teams have been allowed to search beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

The group has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has cautions the organization to begin returning the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will intervene".

An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the search past the "demarcation line".

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

Previously, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

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

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

Hamas does not transfer its captives - living or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.

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

After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.

On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.

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

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that action would be implemented if the remains of the deceased hostages were not returned promptly.

"Some of the bodies are difficult to access, but others they can hand over at present and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their demilitarization," he said.

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

• Gaza children losing their lives as they wait for Israel to enable evacuations
• The US Secretary of State says many nations prepared to join the region's peacekeeping unit
• Recent photographs reveal Israeli control line deeper into the territory than anticipated

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent 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 foreign troops that we will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he declared speaking at the beginning of a government session.

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

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

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

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in the territory in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.

At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in the region since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.