The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated that its representatives accompanied Hamas officials into areas of the Gaza Strip currently controlled by Israeli military control to support the hunt for the bodies of individuals held captive.
As part of the US-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October, the group is obligated to hand over the bodies of all captives as soon as possible. As a reciprocal measure, the Israeli government has agreed to transfer 15 Palestinian bodies for every Israeli body returned.
The organization has so far handed back the remains of fifteen of those taken hostage but none in the past five days, as some of those bodies are thought to be in areas beyond the yellow line marking the temporary truce line.
“Upon the appeal of the parties, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accompanied a party to the conflict as the party looked for the remains of the deceased individuals beyond the IDF-designated ‘yellow boundary’,” stated a spokesperson for the committee.
The spokesperson continued: “Those involved to the conflict determined the modalities of the mission and entrusted the Red Cross to act as a impartial mediator. The ICRC was not involved in the discussions.”
She additionally clarified: “The ICRC was not involved in the physical hunt for the deceased nor does it take part in the retrieval of human remains.”
Under international humanitarian law, it is the responsibility of the sides engaged in a hostilities to search for, collect, and recover the bodies of the deceased.
Recently, the American leader issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the militant group. “They is going to have to start handing over the remains of the hostages who died, which include American citizens, quickly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will intervene,” he posted on his social‑media platform.
As the 48-hour deadline neared, the group, accompanied by the ICRC, teamed up with Egyptian teams, who were granted permission by Israeli authorities to search for remains past the line marking the Israeli military’s pullback inside Gaza. An Israeli spokesperson said the delegation would use excavator machines and trucks in the operation.
The news was supported by an unnamed Israeli official, who told local press that members of the group had been allowed to access sections of Gaza under military authority to search for the remains of hostages, together with Egypt’s and Red Cross teams.
“To achieve this goal, Hamas members were allowed to pass the yellow line,” the official was quoted as saying.
Footage published by a media outlet seemed to show members of a specialized group – belonging to the group’s armed faction responsible for holding hostages – escorting a humanitarian transport in a specific location near a southern city, which is beyond Israeli military control.
The search for the bodies of individuals taken captive has become one of the most delicate issues in the ceasefire agreed between the parties. However, the effort to find the bodies has proved difficult from the beginning, given the presence of an approximate enormous amount of debris across the territory, where, as per health officials, at least ten thousand residents are listed as missing, buried under the debris.
The group has stated it does not know the precise locations of all the remains, saying it has been unable to communicate with several of its units that had been detaining the hostages and were allegedly eliminated during military strikes.
However, an official representative asserted that Hamas was aware of the locations of the remains. “Should the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages,” the official said.
While the American leader has acknowledged that some of the remains are difficult to access, he said that “the rest they can hand over now and, for some reason, they are failing to do so.”
“It may have to do with the surrender of weapons of Hamas,” he added.
Washington has said it has received guarantees from the organization that the group will surrender its arms, though no clear timeline has been established. They remains reluctant to surrender its arms without solid guarantees about the future of its members.
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