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Units from Egyptian authorities and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have verified.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the region controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

The former US president has warned the organization to start return the bodies "promptly, or the other countries involved in this significant peace will intervene".

An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been authorized to work with the Red Cross to locate the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the operation past the "demarcation line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, southern and eastern of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.

Until now, Israel has not approved the entry of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.

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

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

The organization does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, 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 a recent development.

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

The group says it is making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of structures destroyed by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.

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

"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the spokesperson said.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.

"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he said.

He added: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely."

• Palestinian minors dying as they await Israeli authorities to permit evacuations
• The US Secretary of State states lots of countries willing to join the region's peacekeeping unit
• Recent photographs reveal demarcation zone further into the territory than anticipated

On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed multinational contingent in Gaza to help maintain the truce under Trump's plan.

"We are in command of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that we will determine which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said speaking at the beginning of a government session.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of nations" had volunteered to be part of the force - but noted Israel would have to be comfortable with participants.

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's involvement.

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

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in the territory in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about 1,200 individuals and took 251 additional persons as captives.

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