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Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the remains of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have verified.

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

The group has transferred fifteen out of 28 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 working together with Egyptian authorities.

The former US president has cautions Hamas to start return the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will take action".

An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been authorized to collaborate with the ICRC to find the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, southern and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

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

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.

The news will be welcomed by relatives, desperate to give them a proper burial.

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

The organization 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 entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza territory is a recent development.

After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas claims it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty locating them under rubble of structures destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization was aware of where the remains were.

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

Trump shared on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be taken if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.

"Some of the remains are hard to reach, but the rest they can hand over now and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he said.

He continued: "Let's see what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced the country would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure the truce under Trump's plan.

"We are in command of our security, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will determine which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a government session.

On the end of the week, the American diplomat said "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had rejected the nation's participation.

It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be deployed without an agreement with Hamas.

Israel initiated a military campaign 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 additional persons as captives.

No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.