Egyptian state-linked media confirmed Saturday evening that the country has deployed equipment and a specialized team to the Gaza Strip to help locate and recover the bodies of Israeli hostages who remain missing.

Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya also confirmed that “new areas will be entered” on Sunday to search for the bodies of the missing hostages, according to a write-up on Hamas’ official website summarizing Al-Hayya’s interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday.

"We will not give the occupation a pretext to resume the war. ... We have no reservations on any national figure residing in Gaza to administer the Gaza Strip. ... Our weapons are linked to the presence of occupation and aggression; if the occupation ends, these weapons will be transferred to the state," al-Hayya added in the Al Jazeera interview.

-ABC News' Ayat Altawy, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller and Samy Zyara

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a Sunday cabinet meeting to push back on recent suggestions that the U.S. is dictating security policy on Gaza.

"Israel is an independent state, the United States is an independent state," Netanyahu said.

"The relations between us are those of partners," he said, adding, "I want to make one thing clear -- it is our own security policy. We are not prepared to tolerate attacks against us, we respond according to our own discretion against attacks, as we have seen in Lebanon and in Gaza."

Netanyahu also said Israel is not seeking approval for military attacks and addressed the issue of international teams meant to monitor the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

"We control our own security and we have made it clear to the international forces that Israel will determine which forces are acceptable to us, and that is how we operate and will continue to operate," he said.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller and Victoria Beaule

President Donald Trump pressed Hamas to return the bodies of all deceased hostages or face "action" from nations involved in the Gaza ceasefire plan.

"We have a very strong PEACE in the Middle East, and I believe it has a good chance of being EVERLASTING," Trump wrote in a Saturday social media post.

"Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action," Trump added.

The bodies of 13 hostages are still believed to be in Gaza. Hamas committed to returning all living and deceased captives being held in the strip as part of the ceasefire deal reached earlier this month. All 20 living hostages and the bodies of 15 deceased captives have so far been released.

Hamas officials have said the group is continuing to search for the remaining hostage bodies, saying the devastation caused by Israel's attacks on Gaza has complicated recovery efforts.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has named U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin as the "civilian lead" of the Civil-Military Coordination Center, in charge of monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza.

Fagin, will join the military lead for the operation, Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, and 200 servicemembers from U.S. Central Command -- with expertise in transportation, planning, security, logistics and engineering -- who are staffing the hub.

Frank briefed Rubio today at the center, according to the television pool.

Rubio promised more diplomats would arrive at the hub, as well as personnel from partner nations who are involved in shoring up the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Trump Administration officials said the hub will have representatives from partner nations, NGOs, international institutions and the private sector to support stabilization efforts.

Israel handed over bodies of 30 other Palestinian prisoners to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as a part of the ceasefire agreement, according to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

Israel has now returned 165 Palestinian bodies, according to the enclave's government media office.

Not all of the Palestinian bodies returned by Israel could be identified by their families "due to the severe circumstances" surrounding their deaths, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense report on Wednesday.

A collective funeral ceremony was held for 54 unidentified Palestinians on Wednesday in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, as the Civil Defense reported.

Signs of abuse, beating, handcuffing, and blindfolding, and hanging on the neck were seen on the returned bodies, according to the Gaza Media Office and the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Rejecting reports of any torture signs, the Israeli military told ABC News in a statement on Wednesday that "the IDF did not tie any bodies prior to their release to the Strip," adding that they operate "strictly in accordance with international law."

Moureen Kaki, an American-Palestinian aid worker who examined living Palestinian prisoners and detainees upon their return to the Gaza Strip after the peace deal, told ABC News last week that all of 35 prisoners who talked to her had "experienced torture,” while in Israeli custody.

Some said they were beaten by Israeli soldiers “as early as two hours before their arrival into Gaza when they were waiting on the bus,” Kaki said. She added that three Palestinian men had open gunshot wounds from the last three weeks at the time.

-ABC News' Diaa Ostaz, Samy Zyara, Camilla Alcini, Nasser Atta, Jordana Miller, Somayeh Malekian