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Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been authorized to locate the remains of deceased hostages taken during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have verified.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been permitted to operate past the so-called "demarcation line" in the area controlled by military personnel in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which requires it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

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

An official representative said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "demarcation line".

The "yellow line" marks the boundary running along the northern, south and east of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

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

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The news will be greeted positively by family members, eager to provide a dignified funeral.

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

Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.

But the entry of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.

After more than two years of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations calculates that as much as 84% of the territory has been destroyed completely.

The group claims it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the officials in Egypt.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.

"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our captives," the spokesperson said.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be implemented if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.

"Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has to do with their demilitarization," he remarked.

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

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which international troops it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.

"We are in control of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that Israel will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

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

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the country's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an agreement with Hamas.

Israel launched a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.

At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.