đź”— Share this article Egypt and International Committee of the Red Cross Join Search for Captive Remains in Gaza Strip International machinery enters into the Gaza Strip Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to search for the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have verified. The authorities in Israel announced that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area 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 initial stage of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities. The former US president has cautions Hamas to start return the remains "promptly, or the additional nations participating in this significant peace will take action". An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation beyond the "demarcation line". The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal. Until now, Israel has not approved the entry of these crews. Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month. The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to provide a dignified funeral. The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages. Hamas does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military. But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is new. After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been destroyed completely. Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region. It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities. On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization was aware of where the remains were. "If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson said. 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 returned promptly. "Some of the bodies are hard to reach, 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 accomplish over the coming two days. I am watching this very closely." Gaza minors dying as they wait for Israeli authorities to permit relocations Rubio states lots of nations prepared to join the region's peacekeeping unit Recent photographs show demarcation zone further into the territory than anticipated On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced the country would determine which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the truce under the former president's initiative. "We are in command of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he declared talking at the start of a government session. On the end of the week, the American diplomat indicated "numerous countries" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants. This seemed like a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's involvement. It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas. The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as captives. No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.