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Teams from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been granted permission to locate the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The Israeli government stated that the crews have been permitted to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area under the control of military personnel in the Gaza territory.

The group has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to hand over all hostage bodies. The group said it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned the organization to start return the remains "quickly, or the additional nations participating in this significant peace will take action".

An official representative indicated the crew from Egypt has been authorized to work with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the operation beyond the "yellow line".

The "yellow line" marks the border running along the northern, southern and east of the Gaza territory that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.

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

Egypt, along with Qatari officials and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in recent weeks.

The news will be greeted positively 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.

Hamas does not transfer its captives - alive or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather to the Red Cross, which in turn escorts them through the territory and transfers them to the IDF.

But the entry of Egyptian excavation teams inside the Gaza Strip is a recent development.

After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israel, the UN estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

The group says it is doing its best to recover hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty locating them under debris of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.

On Sunday, an official representative stated that Hamas knew where the bodies were.

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

The former president posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that action would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not handed back promptly.

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

Trump 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 said the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned multinational contingent in the region to help secure the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

"We are in command 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 operate and will continue to operate," he said talking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "a lot of countries" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be comfortable with those taking part.

This seemed like a allusion to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the nation's involvement.

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

The Israeli military launched a armed operation in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about 1,200 people and captured 251 others as hostages.

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