🔗 Share this article

Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The authorities in Israel stated that the teams have been permitted to operate past the referred to as "yellow line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces in Gaza.

The group has handed over 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "yellow line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israel has not approved the access of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.

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

The organization does not transfer its captives - living or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead 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 a recent development.

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

Hamas claims it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

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

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

"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the remains of our hostages," the representative said.

Trump shared on his social media account on the weekend that action would be taken if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.

"Some of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their disarming," he said.

Trump continued: "Let's see what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."

• Gaza minors dying as they wait for Israel to permit evacuations
• The US Secretary of State says many countries willing to join the region's peacekeeping unit
• Recent photographs show Israeli control line deeper into Gaza than expected

On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.

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

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous countries" had volunteered to be part of the force - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

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

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

The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as captives.

At least 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.