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Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the teams have been allowed to operate beyond the so-called "demarcation line" in the region under the control of 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 US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to hand over all remains of captives. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to begin returning the remains "promptly, or the other countries involved in this great peace will take action".

An Israeli spokesperson said the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the ICRC to locate the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the search past the "demarcation line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the northern, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal.

Previously, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of these crews.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.

The news will be greeted positively by relatives, eager to give them 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 - directly to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and transfers them to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza Strip is new.

After more than 24 months of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the UN estimates that as much as eighty-four percent of the area has been reduced to rubble.

The group claims it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges locating them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that Hamas knew where the remains were.

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

The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.

"A portion of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can hand over at present and, for some reason, they are not. Perhaps it has do with their demilitarization," he said.

He added: "Let's see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation with great attention."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader announced Israel would determine which international troops it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help maintain the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

"We are in control of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding international forces that Israel will determine which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we function and will proceed," he declared talking at the beginning of a government session.

On Friday, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of nations" had offered to be part of the force - but added Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the country's participation.

It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.

The Israeli military launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred people and captured 251 additional persons as hostages.

No fewer than 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in the region since then, according to the area's Hamas-run health ministry.