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Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been allowed to operate past the referred to as "demarcation line" in the region under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.

The group has transferred fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

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

An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the operation beyond the "demarcation line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the north, southern and eastern of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

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

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.

The news will be welcomed by relatives, eager to provide a proper burial.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.

Hamas does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and transfers them to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.

After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israel, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas says it is doing its best to recover hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty locating them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson said that the organization knew where the bodies were.

"If Hamas made more of an effort, they would be able to retrieve the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson said.

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

"A portion of the bodies are hard to reach, 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.

He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am watching this with great attention."

• Gaza children dying as they wait for Israel to permit relocations
• The US Secretary of State says many countries willing to participate in the region's peacekeeping unit
• Recent photographs reveal demarcation zone deeper into the territory than expected

On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would determine which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned international force in the region to help maintain the truce under the former president's initiative.

"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that we will determine which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he said talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous countries" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This seemed like a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had vetoed the country's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an agreement with the organization.

The Israeli military initiated a military campaign in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as captives.

At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.