🔗 Share this article

Israeli authorities has stated that it has allowed a Hamas official to enter areas in Gaza under the control of the IDF to support humanitarian and Cairo teams in locating the remains of thirteen remaining hostages who perished.

International Red Cross, Cairo's technical experts, and a Hamas person have been authorized to enter outside the IDF's Yellow Line position in Gaza under close IDF supervision,” a state representative announced during an official update.

The spokesperson added that Cairo's personnel would bring in further machinery, among them “tractor-type vehicles”.

Israeli officials allege the Hamas group of violating the fortnight-long Gaza ceasefire deal because it has returned a mere 15 of the 28 total hostages' bodies it had retained.

The Palestinian group states it is fully engaged to the arrangement brokered by the United States, Cairo, Qatar and Turkey, but and it requires assistance to find bodies hidden beneath the debris left by two years of hostilities.

All 20 surviving captives were freed soon after the ceasefire took effect on the tenth of October in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners and over 1,700 prisoners from Gaza.

Israel has additionally released the remains of 195 Gazan residents in return for the bodies of the 13 hostages held by Hamas handed over by the faction, along with the remains of hostages from other nations – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.

11 of the thirteen deceased captives remaining in Gaza are Israeli nationals, one Tanzanian citizen, and one is Thai.

“Hamas knows where they are located and no other choice exists except for their return to Israel,” the official said.

In prior developments, the body supporting the families of captives called for that prompt steps be enacted to guarantee that the group returned each of the deceased.

“The families urge the government of Israel, American leadership, and the mediators not to advance to subsequent stages of the deal unless the group completes each requirement,” the family advocacy group stated.

The statement was issued after press in Israel cited an Israeli security official indicating that US officials under Trump aimed to proceed to the next stage even if not all the hostages were recovered.

Earlier this week, the top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya announced that Hamas was encountering difficulties due to the fact that military operations had transformed the area of Gazan territories”.

Additionally, a number of people responsible for the burials have died or no longer remember the burial locations,” he stated.

Nearly all of the hostages who died yet to be recovered were included in the 251 individuals individuals captured during the offensive initiated by Hamas on Israel's southern regions on October 7, 2023, at which time about 1,200 additional individuals were killed.

Authorities answered by initiating a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,500 persons have been killed, according to the region's health authorities under Hamas.