🔗 Share this article

Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have verified.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been permitted to operate past the so-called "yellow line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Hamas has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization stated it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to start return the remains "quickly, or the additional nations participating in this great peace will take action".

An Israeli spokesperson indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the boundary running along the northern, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israeli authorities has not authorized the entry of these crews.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to provide a dignified funeral.

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

The organization does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

The group says it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization knew where the bodies were.

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

Trump shared on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.

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

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

• Palestinian children dying as they await Israel to permit evacuations
• Rubio says lots of nations prepared to participate in the region's security force
• New images show demarcation zone further into the territory than anticipated

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

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

On Friday, the American diplomat said "numerous countries" had volunteered to be part of the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.

It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in the territory in following the incidents of October 7th, 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 the region from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.