Units from Egypt and the ICRC have been granted permission 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 permitted to search past the so-called "yellow line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in the Gaza territory.
Hamas has handed over fifteen out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a American-mediated truce agreement, which mandates it to hand over all remains of captives. The organization said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has cautions Hamas to start return the bodies "quickly, or the additional nations involved in this significant peace will intervene".
An official representative said the crew from Egypt has been permitted to collaborate with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use excavator machines and vehicles for the operation past the "yellow line".
The "yellow line" marks the boundary running along the north, southern and east of Gaza that Israeli forces withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israeli authorities has not approved the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatar and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump Gaza peace plan, which was ratified in the Egyptian resort of the resort town in recent weeks.
The news will be welcomed by family members, eager to provide a proper burial.
The ICRC has already been deeply engaged in the return of hostages.
Hamas does not hand over its detainees - alive or deceased - directly to the Israel Defense Forces, but instead to the ICRC, which in turn escorts them through the territory and hands them on to the Israeli military.
But the arrival of Egyptian excavation teams 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 destroyed completely.
The group claims it is doing its best to recover remains of captives, but it encounters challenges locating them under debris of buildings destroyed by the Israeli military in the region.
It is now coordinating with the Egyptian authorities.
On Sunday, an Israeli government spokesperson stated that the organization knew where the remains were.
"If the group put in greater work, they would be able to recover the bodies of our captives," the representative said.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday that measures would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not returned promptly.
"Some of the bodies are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for some reason, they are not. Maybe it has to do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
He added: "We will observe what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this with great attention."
On the weekend, the Israeli leader announced Israel would decide which international troops 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 made it clear regarding international forces that Israel will determine which units are unacceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will proceed," he declared speaking 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 Israel would have to be comfortable with participants.
This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid reports Israeli officials had vetoed the nation's participation.
It remained unclear, however, how this contingent could be deployed without an agreement with the organization.
Israel launched a military campaign in the territory in following the 7 October 2023 attack, in which militants associated with the group killed about 1,200 individuals and captured two hundred fifty-one additional persons as hostages.
At least sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been lost their lives in military actions in the region from that time, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.
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