US ‘working on outline’ of UN resolution authorizing Gaza peacekeeping force: Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that US officials are getting inputs of a possible UN resolution or international agreement to authorize a multinational force in Gaza and will discuss the issue in Qatar on Sunday. “Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level, whether it be monetary or personnel or both, are going to need that (a UN resolution or international agreement) because their domestic laws require it,” Rubio told reporters while travelling on his plane between Israel and Qatar en route to Asia. “So we have a whole team working on that outline of it.”

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Rubio spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day.

Pigott said that during the call, the two leaders discussed “our collective effort to implement President Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Conflict in Gaza,” and “affirmed the strategic relationship between the US and Israel.”

Netanyahu approved entry of Egyptian team into Gaza to search for hostages’ bodies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally approved the entry of the Egyptian team of experts that entered the Gaza Strip with several engineering vehicles to assist with locating the bodies, the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel.

“It is a technical team. They are going in only to locate the slain hostages,” the PMO said.

Both Israel and Hamas have given information about the location of slain hostages to the Egyptians to guide their search, said a Channel 12 report.

Meanwhile, reports said that Israel knows for certain that Hamas could hand over more bodies of slain hostages but is deciding not to and is also holding back information about their location. Israel also expects Hamas to return two more bodies on Sunday, reported Channel 12.

Israeli sources shared that they expect Hamas to return two more bodies on Sunday after pressure from the mediators, who have reportedly told the terror group that US President Donald Trump is close to declaring that Hamas is responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire.