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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 captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

The authorities in Israel announced that the crews have been permitted to search beyond the so-called "yellow line" in the region under the control of Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.

Hamas has transferred fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to transfer all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now working together with officials in Egypt.

The former US president has warned the organization to begin returning the bodies "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will intervene".

An official representative said the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the Red Cross to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the boundary running along the north, south and east of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

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

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

The news will be greeted positively by family members, eager to give them 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 - living or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the Red Cross, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and transfers them to the Israeli military.

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

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

The group says it is doing its best to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under debris of buildings destroyed by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On the weekend, an official representative stated that the organization knew where the remains were.

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

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be taken if the remains of the deceased hostages were not handed back quickly.

"A portion of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return at present and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their disarming," he said.

He added: "Let's see what they do over the coming two days. I am watching this very closely."

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On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in the region to help secure the ceasefire under Trump's plan.

"We are in command of our safety, and we have also stated explicitly regarding foreign troops that we will decide which units are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he declared speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "numerous countries" had offered to be part of the force - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.

This appeared to be a reference to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the nation's participation.

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

The Israeli military 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 twelve hundred individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one others as hostages.

At least 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the region from that time, according to the area's Hamas-run health ministry.