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In an interview with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, Abdel Aty explained that many bodies remain buried under the rubble, with explosive materials and improvised devices posing additional risks to recovery teams.

“Reaching them will be difficult, but we are doing our best on the ground to collect the bodies of the dead and hand them over to the Israeli side, as part of implementing the first phase of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement,” he said.

The minister added that Egypt had informed the American side that retrieving the remains “would take a long time” due to the situation on the ground.

Abdel Aty said that the first phase of the ceasefire agreement was “going well,” while stressing the urgent need to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and to reopen border crossings as soon as possible.

Regarding the next phase of the agreement, the minister cautioned that it would be “more difficult,” but expressed optimism that with “political commitment, US involvement, and international cooperation,” the parties could reach an understanding that would pave the way for a comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, which he described as “the core of the conflict in our region.”

READ: Hamas says Israeli bodies are seven floors underground near unexploded bombs

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.