Units from Egyptian authorities and the ICRC have been authorized to search for the remains of hostages who perished taken during the 7 October attacks, Israeli authorities have confirmed.
The authorities in Israel stated that the crews have been allowed to operate beyond the referred to as "demarcation line" in the area controlled by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The group has handed over 15 out of twenty-eight deceased Israeli hostages under the initial stage of a US-brokered truce agreement, which requires it to transfer all remains of captives. The group said it is now working together with Egyptian authorities.
Donald Trump has cautions the organization to start return the bodies "quickly, or the additional nations participating in this significant peace will intervene".
An Israeli spokesperson indicated the Egyptian team has been authorized to work with the ICRC to locate the bodies, and would use digging equipment and vehicles for the search beyond the "yellow line".
The "demarcation line" marks the border running along the north, south and eastern of the Gaza territory that Israel withdrew to, as part of the first stage of the truce agreement.
Previously, Israel has not authorized the entry of such teams.
The Egyptian government, along with Qatari officials and Turkish authorities, is a principal participant of the mediated by Trump peace initiative for Gaza, which was signed in the coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month.
The development will be welcomed by relatives, eager to provide a dignified funeral.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has already been heavily involved in the repatriation of captives.
The organization does not hand over its captives - living or deceased - straight to the IDF, but rather 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 Strip is a recent development.
After more than two years of intense bombardment by Israeli forces, the United Nations estimates that as much as 84% of the area has been destroyed completely.
The group says it is making every effort to recover hostage bodies, but it encounters challenges finding them under debris of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.
It is now coordinating with the officials in Egypt.
On the weekend, an official representative said that Hamas was aware of where the bodies were.
"If the group made more of an effort, they would be able to recover the bodies of our hostages," the spokesperson commented.
The former president posted on his social media account on Saturday that action would be taken if the bodies of the hostages who died were not handed back promptly.
"A portion of the remains are difficult to access, but the rest they can return now and, for unknown reasons, they are not. Maybe it has do with their demilitarization," he remarked.
He added: "We will observe what they do over the coming two days. I am monitoring the situation very closely."
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would decide which foreign forces it would permit as part of a planned multinational contingent 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 foreign troops that Israel will decide which forces are not acceptable to us, and this is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said talking at the start of a government session.
On the end of the week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "numerous nations" had volunteered to be part of the contingent - but added Israeli authorities would have to be satisfied with participants.
This seemed like a reference to Turkey, amid accounts Israeli officials had vetoed the country's involvement.
It was still uncertain, however, how this contingent could be stationed without an understanding with Hamas.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the incidents of October 7th, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and took two hundred fifty-one others as captives.
No fewer than sixty-eight thousand five hundred nineteen have been killed in military actions in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health authorities under the group's control.
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