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Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the bodies of deceased hostages captured during the October 7th incidents, officials in Israel have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the crews have been allowed to search past the so-called "demarcation line" in the region under the control of military personnel in Gaza.

The group has handed over fifteen out of 28 hostages who lost their lives under the first phase of a American-mediated ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned the organization to begin returning the bodies "promptly, or the additional nations involved in this great peace will intervene".

An Israeli spokesperson said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to work with the Red Cross to find the remains, and would use digging equipment and trucks for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of Gaza that Israeli forces pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

Previously, Israel has not authorized the access of these crews.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.

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

The ICRC has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of hostages.

Hamas does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - directly 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 arrival of digging crews from Egypt inside the Gaza territory is new.

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

Hamas claims it is making every effort to retrieve hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under rubble of structures bombed out by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.

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

"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the remains of our captives," the representative commented.

The former president posted on his social media account on Saturday that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.

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

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

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said Israel would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a proposed international force in Gaza 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 forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we function and will continue to operate," he said talking at the start of a cabinet meeting.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated "a lot of nations" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but noted Israel would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This appeared to be a allusion to the Turkish government, amid reports Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.

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

The Israeli military initiated a armed operation in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and captured 251 additional persons as hostages.

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