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Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have verified.

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

The group has handed over 15 out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the initial stage of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned the organization to begin returning the remains "quickly, or the other countries participating in this significant peace will take action".

An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to find the bodies, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the north, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

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

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the Trump-brokered peace initiative for Gaza, which was ratified in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

The development will be greeted positively by family members, desperate to give them a proper burial.

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

Hamas does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - straight to the Israel Defense Forces, but rather to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and transfers them to the Israeli military.

But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip 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 making every effort to retrieve remains of captives, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of structures destroyed by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.

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

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

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that action would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.

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

He added: "We will observe what they accomplish over the coming two days. I am watching this very closely."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed multinational contingent in the region to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

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

On the end of the week, the American diplomat indicated "a lot of nations" had offered to be involved in the force - but noted Israel would have to be satisfied with participants.

This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israel had vetoed the nation's participation.

It was still uncertain, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with the organization.

Israel initiated a armed operation 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 took two hundred fifty-one others as captives.

At least 68,519 have been lost their lives in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.