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Units from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the crews have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.

The group has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group stated it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to start return the bodies "quickly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will take action".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the operation beyond the "demarcation line".

The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the northern, south and east of Gaza that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

Until now, Israel has not authorized the access of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The development will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to provide a dignified funeral.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of captives.

The organization does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through Gaza and hands them on to the IDF.

But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is new.

After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been reduced to rubble.

The group says it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings destroyed by the IDF in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization knew where the remains were.

"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the spokesperson commented.

Trump posted on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.

"A portion of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can hand over at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their disarming," he remarked.

Trump continued: "Let's see what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."

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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would determine which international troops it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

"We are in command of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared speaking at the start of a government session.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of nations" had offered to be part of the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israel had rejected the country's participation.

It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be stationed without an understanding with the organization.

Israel initiated a armed operation in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about 1,200 people and took two hundred fifty-one others as captives.

No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.