The deployment of peacekeeping troops to secure the Gaza Strip is being discussed. Israel intends to decide on the participating countries. Meanwhile, the search for the remaining bodies of hostages continues.

Israel wants to determine foreign participation as part of a planned international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip."We have control over our security, and we have also made it clear with regard to international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. This is also acceptable to the United States.

The peacekeeping force is part of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu probably against Turkish participation

The US government has already ruled out sending its own troops to the Gaza Strip and instead called for Arab and Muslim states to contribute funds and troops. The force could include soldiers from Egypt, Indonesia, and the Arab Gulf states. However, it remains unclear whether these or other states will actually participate.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated during a visit to Israel on Friday that the international force must consist of"countries with which Israel agrees." Work is still underway to assemble such a force. Rubio declined to comment on which states Israel might disagree with.

Netanyahu recently indicated that he would reject the participation of Turkish security forces. While NATO member Turkey is one of the strongest military powers in the region, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, shelters high-ranking Hamas officials in his country and has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide. Israel strongly denies this.

Egypt assists in the rescue of hostages

Meanwhile, the terrorist organization Hamas announced that it would expand the search for the 13 bodies of hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip to other parts of the coastal region. Khalil al-Haya, one of Hamas's leaders and chief negotiator, said the search has already begun in new areas.

Egypt dispatched a team of experts and heavy equipment to the Gaza Strip on Saturday to assist in the recovery of bodies, some of which may be buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed in the war. The operation was part of the mediating states' efforts to consolidate the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, it said.

The International Red Cross is also involved in the search, as a spokesman for the Israeli government confirmed today.

More protests in Israel

Two weeks after the ceasefire came into effect, bodies of hostages are still being held in Gaza. Under the agreement, which came into effect on October 10, Hamas committed to releasing all surviving hostages, as well as the final bodies of those abducted in the terrorist attack by Hamas and allied Palestinian terrorist groups on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In Israel, tens of thousands demonstrated again on Saturday evening for the return of the remaining dead hostages.