Egyptian authorities and International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Captive Bodies in Gaza

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

The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been permitted to operate beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization said it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.

The former US president has warned the organization to begin returning the bodies "promptly, or the additional nations involved in this significant peace will intervene".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the search beyond the "demarcation line".

The "yellow line" indicates the border running along the northern, south and eastern of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

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

Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The news will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to provide a proper burial.

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

The organization does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and transfers them to the IDF.

But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.

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

The group claims it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an official representative stated that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.

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

Trump posted on his social media account on Saturday that action would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.

"A portion of the bodies are difficult to access, but others they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he said.

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

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On the weekend, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

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

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

This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.

It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an agreement with Hamas.

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one additional persons as hostages.

No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.