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.

As a fragile ceasefire continues to hold, retired Israel Defense Forces Major General Giora Eiland expressed concern that the deal will fall apart because its unlikely Hamas will be ready to give up its weapons, he told ABC News.

“I don't think that Hamas will be ready to give up its weapons. They might be ready to give up some symbolic positions as a government, but they will never be ready to give up their weapons. That's why I don't believe the Trump plan will successfully be accomplished," he said in an interview in Tel Aviv.

However, under U.S. pressure, Israel is obliged to give the plan a go, but the only part that really matters for Israel is the "demilitarization" of Gaza, he said.

“We have to give a chance because this is American plan and as far as Israel is concerned, if it does work then it is good for us. But I personally don't believe that it will succeed," he said.

The former IDF general believes that Israel should ensure that there is no reconstruction in Gaza unless “this process of demilitarization is accomplished successfully.”

Such a process should, he says, involve destroying all the tunnels, something which a Hamas ambush on IDF troops on Sunday proved has not been completed. Eiland said dismantling Hamas militarily is possible but believes that task now falls to Arab partners of the U.S.

However, Eiland believes Hamas, as a political force, will remain in Gaza.

"You cannot dismantle the sentiment of Hamas which is deep in the hearts and the minds of the people of Gaza. But you can destroy the military abilities," Eiland said.

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge