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Teams from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

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 Gaza.

The group has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The group stated it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

The former US president has warned the organization to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this significant peace will take action".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to find the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search beyond the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the boundary running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

Previously, Israel has not approved the entry of these crews.

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

The development will be welcomed by family members, eager to provide a proper burial.

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

Hamas does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and transfers them to the IDF.

But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.

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

The group claims it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of structures destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an official representative said that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.

"If Hamas put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the representative commented.

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

"Some of the remains are difficult to access, but others they can hand over at present and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their disarming," he remarked.

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

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On the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the truce under the former president's initiative.

"We are in control of our security, and we have also made it clear regarding foreign troops that we will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a government session.

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

This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israel had rejected the nation's participation.

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

Israel launched a military campaign in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about 1,200 individuals and took two hundred fifty-one additional persons as hostages.

At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in the region since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.