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Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been allowed to search beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Hamas has transferred 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The group stated it is now coordinating with officials in Egypt.

Donald Trump has warned the organization to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will intervene".

An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been permitted to work with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the northern, south and eastern of Gaza that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the truce agreement.

Previously, Israel has not approved the entry of such teams.

Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of the resort town earlier this month.

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

The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of captives.

Hamas does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is new.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations calculates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been destroyed completely.

Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of structures bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

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

"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to retrieve the remains of our hostages," the representative said.

The former president posted on his social media account on the weekend that measures would be taken if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.

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

Trump continued: "Let's see what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am watching this with great attention."

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• Recent photographs show Israeli control line further into the territory than anticipated

On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which international troops it would permit 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 safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said speaking at the start of a government session.

On the end of the week, the American diplomat indicated "numerous countries" had offered to be involved in the force - but noted Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.

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

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in following the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen took the lives of about twelve hundred individuals and took 251 others as hostages.

No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.