An Egyptian team entered the Gaza Strip today (Saturday) to assist in locating the deceased hostages.
According to a report in Kan News, this is an Israeli flexing of muscles following American pressure, as until now Israel has refused to allow foreign teams into Gaza, claiming that Hamas can return kidnapped civilians on its own, without external assistance.
A security source explained: "As part of the talks to return the fallen hostages, the political echelon approved the Egyptian request to bring in only Egyptian equipment and personnel to assist in the effort to locate the fallen. The equipment and personnel entered the Gaza Strip.".
Earlier, sources familiar with the matter said that the United States is preventing Israel from imposing sanctions or taking any steps at this stage in response to the failure to return the deceased hostages.
This is the third day in a row that Hamas has not returned casualties, even though the terrorist organization has the option to do so.
After the dead hostages were not released yesterday, a message was received in Israel that this might happen today - but as of now there is no indication of a release.
According to a report on Channel 12, in light of the slow release, over the weekend, synchronization operations were carried out between Israel and Hamas through intermediaries - including the locations of hostages inside the Strip. Each side transferred the information it had and cross-referenced it, with the aim of leading to the release of additional hostages in the near future.
There are currently 13 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip, and the security establishment estimates that Hamas does not know the location of between 4 and 5 of the hostages.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who left Israel earlier today, met in Israel with the parents of Itai Chen and Omar Nowtra, an American citizen, and told them that the US will not rest until all the fallen are returned.
""We are examining ways in which we can increase direct and indirect pressure on Hamas to release dead hostages," Rubio told the families of the hostages.
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