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- By James Moore
- 05 Dec 2025
Units from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the October 7th incidents, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in Gaza.
The group has transferred fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to transfer all remains of captives. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
The former US president has cautions the organization to start return the remains "promptly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will intervene".
An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" indicates the boundary running along the north, southern and east of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.
Until now, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town in recent weeks.
The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the repatriation of captives.
The organization does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - straight 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 arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.
After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the territory has been destroyed completely.
Hamas says it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of structures destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.
On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson said that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.
"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson said.
The former president posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.
"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but others they can return at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he remarked.
Trump continued: "Let's see what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure the truce under Trump's plan.
"We are in command of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said speaking at the beginning of a government session.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of nations" had offered to be part of the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.
It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an agreement with the organization.
The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred people and took 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 area's Hamas-run health ministry.
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