Egypt along with International Committee of the Red Cross Participate in Effort for Captive Bodies in Gaza Strip

Teams from Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been authorized to search for the remains of deceased hostages captured during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.

The Israeli government stated that the teams have been allowed to search beyond the referred to as "yellow line" in the area under the control of Israeli forces 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 requires it to transfer all hostage bodies. The group stated it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.

Donald Trump has warned Hamas to begin returning the bodies "promptly, or the other countries participating in this great peace will intervene".

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

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

Previously, Israeli authorities has not authorized the access of such teams.

The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was signed in the Egyptian resort of the resort town earlier this month.

The development will be greeted positively by relatives, desperate to provide 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 detainees - living or deceased - directly to the IDF, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn accompanies them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.

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

After more than 24 months of heavy shelling by Israel, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the territory has been reduced to rubble.

Hamas says it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it faces difficulty finding them under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in the region.

It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.

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

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

The former president shared on his Truth Social platform on the weekend that measures would be implemented if the bodies of the deceased hostages were not returned quickly.

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

He continued: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am monitoring the situation very closely."

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On Sunday, the Israeli leader said the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a proposed multinational contingent in the region to help maintain 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 decide which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared speaking at the beginning of a government session.

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

This appeared to be a allusion to Turkey, amid reports Israeli officials had rejected the country's participation.

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

The Israeli military launched a armed operation in the territory in following the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about twelve hundred people and took 251 others as captives.

No fewer than 68,519 have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.