A Red Cross official stated that its representatives accompanied members of Hamas into zones of the Gaza Strip currently controlled by Israeli military authority to support the hunt for the remains of Israeli hostages.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire, which began on October 10, the group is obligated to hand over the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible. In exchange, Israel has agreed to transfer 15 Palestinian bodies for each Israeli.
The organization has so far handed back the remains of fifteen of those held captive but zero in the last five days, as a portion of those remains are believed to be in areas past the ceasefire boundary marking the temporary truce line.
“Upon the appeal of the parties, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined a participant in the hostilities as the group searched for the bodies of the deceased past the military-established ‘yellow line’,” said a spokesperson for the committee.
She continued: “The parties to the hostilities determined the procedures of the operation and delegated the Red Cross to act as a neutral intermediary. We was not involved in those negotiations.”
The official additionally clarified: “The ICRC was not involved in the physical hunt for the deceased nor does it engage in the physical recovery of remains.”
Under international humanitarian law, it is the duty of the parties involved in a hostilities to locate, collect, and recover the bodies of the deceased.
On Saturday, the American leader issued a two-day ultimatum to the militant group. “They is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including American citizens, promptly, or the additional nations involved in this significant truce will intervene,” he wrote on his online channel.
When the two-day window neared, the group, joined by the ICRC, joined Egyptian teams, who were granted permission by Israel to look for remains past the line marking the withdrawal of troops inside Gaza. An Israeli spokesperson said the delegation would use excavator machines and vehicles in the search.
The news was supported by an unnamed Israeli official, who told local press that members of the group had been permitted to access sections of the region under Israel Defense Forces (IDF) control to look for the bodies of captives, alongside Egypt’s and Red Cross personnel.
“To achieve this goal, representatives were permitted to pass the yellow line,” the source was cited as stating.
Footage published by a regional network appeared to show individuals of a specialized group – part of the organization’s military wing tasked with holding captives – escorting a humanitarian transport in a specific location close to a southern city, which is beyond Israeli military control.
Efforts to locate for the bodies of individuals taken captive has turned into one of the most sensitive issues in the ceasefire agreed between the parties. However, the effort to locate the bodies has been difficult from the beginning, given the presence of an approximate enormous amount of rubble across the strip, where, as per local health authorities, at least ten thousand residents are recorded as missing, trapped under the debris.
The group has claimed it lacks information on the exact whereabouts of all the bodies, saying it has lost contact with several of its teams that had been holding the hostages and were reportedly eliminated during military strikes.
In contrast, an Israeli government spokesperson asserted that the organization was aware of the locations of the remains. “If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our captives,” the official said.
While the US president has conceded that a portion of the remains are difficult to reach, he said that “others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not.”
“It may have to do with the surrender of weapons of the group,” he added.
The US administration has said it has received assurances from Hamas that the group will disarm, though no clear timeline has been established. They remains reluctant to surrender its weapons without firm guarantees about the fate of its members.
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