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Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been allowed to search past the referred to as "yellow line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has transferred fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The group stated it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".

An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the search beyond the "demarcation line".

The "yellow line" indicates the boundary running along the northern, south and east of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the access of these crews.

Egypt, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The news will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to give them a dignified funeral.

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

Hamas does not transfer its detainees - living or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and transfers them to the IDF.

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

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

Hamas says it is doing its best to retrieve hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of structures destroyed by the IDF in the region.

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

On the weekend, an official representative stated that Hamas knew where the remains were.

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

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be taken if the remains of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

"Some of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can return at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he remarked.

Trump continued: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."

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

"We are in command of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he declared talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be involved in the force - but added Israel would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had vetoed the country's involvement.

It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.

The Israeli military launched a armed operation in the territory in following 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.

At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in the region since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.