Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip

Egyptian machinery enters into the Gaza territory
Egyptian equipment crosses into the Gaza territory

Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have verified.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to operate past the referred to as "yellow line" in the region controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.

The group has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has cautions Hamas to start return the remains "promptly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will take action".

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

The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the northern, southern and east of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

Until now, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of such teams.

Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The development will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a proper burial.

Hostage situation in the region

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

Hamas does not hand over its captives - alive or deceased - directly to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, 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 Strip is a recent development.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

The group claims it is making every effort to recover remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of structures destroyed by the IDF in the region.

It is now coordinating 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 bodies of our captives," the representative commented.

The former president shared on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

"A portion 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 disarming," he said.

He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

"We are in command of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will determine which units 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, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but noted Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This appeared to be a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the country's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.

The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in the territory in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group killed about twelve hundred people and captured 251 additional persons as captives.

No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in Israeli attacks in the region from that time, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.

Andrea Brock
Andrea Brock

A tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in the industry.