Egyptian authorities along with International Committee of the Red Cross Join Effort for Hostage Remains in Gaza Strip

Units from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been granted permission to locate the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The Israeli government announced that the crews have been permitted to operate past the so-called "yellow line" in the area 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 US-brokered ceasefire deal, which mandates it to hand over all hostage bodies. The organization stated it is now coordinating with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to start return the remains "promptly, or the additional nations participating in this significant peace will intervene".

An official representative indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to collaborate with the Red Cross to find the remains, and would use excavator machines and trucks for the operation past the "yellow line".

The "demarcation line" indicates the border running along the northern, south and east of Gaza that Israel pulled back to, as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire deal.

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

The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkey, is a key signatory of the Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the coastal city of the resort town in recent weeks.

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 repatriation of captives.

The organization does not transfer its detainees - alive or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through Gaza and hands them on to the IDF.

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

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

Hamas claims it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

It is now working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities.

On the weekend, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.

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

Trump shared on his social media account on the weekend that action would be implemented if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back quickly.

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

He added: "Let's see what they accomplish over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely."

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On the weekend, the Israeli leader announced the country would determine which foreign forces it would allow as part of a planned international force in Gaza to help maintain the ceasefire under the former president's initiative.

"We are in control of our safety, and we have also made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared talking at the start of a government session.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous nations" had volunteered to be involved in the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with those taking part.

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

It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be stationed without an understanding with the organization.

Israel initiated a armed operation in Gaza in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group took the lives of about twelve hundred people and captured two hundred fifty-one others as captives.

At least 68,519 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the area's health authorities under the group's control.