Only one Hamas official operating in IDF-held area of Gaza to search for bodies, Israeli official clarifies

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

There is only one Hamas official operating with Egyptian crews on Israel’s side of the “Yellow Line” dividing Gaza, an official in the Prime Minister’s Office tells The Times of Israel.

“He’s coming there, he’s saying dig here,” says the official. “It’s only for the location, it’s not for anything else.”

Yesterday, another unnamed Israeli official told Hebrew-language media that Hamas representatives had been permitted to enter Israel Defense Forces-controlled areas in Gaza to search for the bodies, alongside the Egyptian and Red Cross teams.

An Israeli government spokeswoman confirmed that Red Cross and Egyptian teams were permitted by Israel to search for the bodies of deceased hostages beyond the yellow line demarcating the military’s pullback in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian squads are not military personnel, stresses the PMO: “It’s someone that has a tractor.”

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