A Palestinian flag is seen with the background of a section of the wall in the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza, on the background, near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

Israel's demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has long rejected, threatens to unravel cease-fire talks aimed at ending the 10-month-old war, freeing scores of hostages and preventing an even wider conflict.

Officials close to the negotiations have said Israel wants to maintain a military presence in a narrow buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border it calls the Philadelphi corridor and in an area it carved out that cuts off northern Gaza from the south, known as the Netzarim corridor.

It's unclear if Israeli control of these corridors is included in a U.S.-backed proposal that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Hamas to accept to break an impasse in cease-fire talks. Blinken, who is back in the region this week, said Monday that Israel had agreed to the proposal without saying what it entails.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says control of the Egyptian border area is needed to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through smuggling tunnels and that Israel needs a "mechanism" to prevent militants from returning to the north, which has been largely isolated since October.

Hamas has rejected those demands, which were only made public in recent weeks. There was no mention of Israel retaining control of the corridors in earlier drafts of an evolving cease-fire proposal seen by The Associated Press.

Hamas says any lasting Israeli presence in Gaza would amount to military occupation. Egypt, which has served as a key mediator in the monthslong talks, is also staunchly opposed to an Israeli presence on the other side of its border with Gaza.

What are the corridors and why does Israel want them?

The Philadelphi corridor is a narrow strip — about 100 meters (yards) wide in parts — running the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah Crossing, which until May was Gaza's only outlet to the outside world not controlled by Israel.

Israel says Hamas used a vast network of tunnels beneath the border to import arms, allowing it to build up the military machine it used in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The military says it has found and destroyed dozens of tunnels since seizing the corridor in May.

Egypt rejects those allegations, saying it destroyed hundreds of tunnels on its side of the border years ago and set up a military buffer zone of its own that prevents smuggling.

The roughly 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim Corridor runs from the Israeli border to the coast just south of Gaza City, severing the territory's largest metropolitan area and the rest of the north from the south.

Hamas has demanded that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled the north be allowed to return to their homes. Israel has agreed to their return but wants to ensure they are not armed.

Why are Hamas and Egypt opposed to Israeli control?

Israeli control over either corridor would require closed roads, fences, guard towers and other military installations. Checkpoints are among the most visible manifestations of Israel's open-ended military rule over the West Bank, and over Gaza prior to its 2005 withdrawal.

Israel says such checkpoints are needed for security, but Palestinians view them as a humiliating infringement on their daily life. They would also be seen by many Palestinians as a prelude to a lasting military occupation and the return of Jewish settlements — something Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners have openly called for.

Hamas has demanded a total Israeli withdrawal and accuses Netanyahu of setting new conditions in order to sabotage the talks.

Egypt says Israel’s operations along the border threaten the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. It has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing until Israel returns the Gaza side to Palestinian control.

Are these new demands by Israel?

Israel insists they are not, referring to them as "clarifications" to an earlier proposal endorsed by President Joe Biden in a May 31 speech and by the U.N. Security Council in a rare cease-fire resolution. Israel also accuses Hamas of making new demands since then that it cannot accept.

But neither the speech nor the Security Council resolution made any reference to Israel's demands regarding the corridors — which were only made public in recent weeks — and both referred to a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The U.S. has also said it is against any reoccupation of Gaza or reduction of its territory.

Previous written drafts of the cease-fire proposal stipulate an initial Israeli withdrawal from populated and central areas during the first phase of the agreement, when the most vulnerable hostages would be freed and displaced Palestinians allowed to return to the north.

During the second phase, the specifics of which would be negotiated during the first, Israeli forces would withdraw completely and Hamas would release all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.

The most recent drafts of the proposal — including one that Hamas approved in principle on July 2 — contain language specifying that displaced residents returning in the first phase must not carry weapons. But they do not specify a mechanism for searching them.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which have spent months trying to broker an agreement, have not weighed in publicly on Israel's demands regarding the corridors.

An Israeli delegation held talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Sunday focused on the Philadelphi corridor but did not achieve a breakthrough, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

What happens if the talks fail?

Failure to reach a cease-fire deal would prolong a war in which Israel's offensive has already killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents and destroyed much of the impoverished territory.

Palestinian militants are still holding some 110 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, in which they killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Israel has only rescued seven hostages through military operations. Around a third of the 110 are already dead, according to Israeli authorities, and the rest are at risk as the war grinds on.

A cease-fire deal also offers the best chance of averting — or at least delaying — an Iranian or Hezbollah strike on Israel over last month's targeted killing of a Hezbollah commander in Beirut and a Hamas leader in Tehran.

Israel has vowed to respond to any attack, and the United States has rushed military assets to the region, raising the prospect of an even wider and more devastating war.

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Benjamin Netanyahu backs US ceasefire proposal for the first time

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has publicly backed a US plan for a ceasefire with Hamas.

The so-called “bridging proposal” includes conditions for the return of hostages but it is not clear whether it allows Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi corridor, a buffer zone separating Gaza from Egypt.

Following a three-hour meeting on Monday with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, Mr Netanyahu approved the latest US proposal for the first time, saying it had met Israel’s security needs.

Hamas has so far rejected the deal as it continues to push for stronger guarantees that Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza.

“The prime minister reiterated Israel’s commitment to the current American proposal on the release of our hostages, which takes into account Israel’s security needs, which he strongly insists on,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

The deal has been shared with both Hamas and Israel but has not been published.

Mr Blinken, who is on his ninth trip to the region since war broke out on Oct 7, hailed his meeting with Mr Netanyahu as “very constructive” after he confirmed Israel’s approval of the deal and called on Hamas “to do the same”.

He emphasised that the US is committed to “getting it done now” ahead of his trip to Cairo on Tuesday, where talks are expected to resume this week.

Mr Blinken struck a no-nonsense tone at his first meeting of the morning with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.

He said it was “a decisive moment; probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire, and to put everyone on a better path”.

However, as mediators worked to get the ceasefire agreement over the line, Hamas and its partner the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Israeli reports suggest the bomber’s device, stored in a backpack, malfunctioned and exploded on a near-empty street. The attack on Sunday night killed only the bomber and injured one other person.

The near-tragedy underscored the huge risk of escalation as an Israeli official told The Telegraph that the ceasefire talks had reached a “critical” moment, with Israel understanding that “now is the time” to strike a deal.

However, the issue of the Philadelphi corridor, a strategically important strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, remains sensitive and is still the subject of negotiation with Hamas and Egypt, neither of which want an Israeli presence there.

The issue could still collapse the talks, according to some close to the negotiations.

A senior Israeli official told The Telegraph: “Netanyahu is looking for any excuse not to sign the deal. He understands that if there is a deal to stop the war, his government will fall.”

“The worst thing that could happen from his perspective is if Hamas suddenly agrees to the terms,” they added.

Hamas, which didn’t participate in the talks in Doha last week, held Mr Netanyahu responsible for “thwarting the mediators’ efforts and obstructing an agreement,” claiming that the prime minister  “sets new conditions and demands.”

Delegations from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Israel are scheduled to meet in Cairo this week to continue talks, but it’s unclear if Hamas will decide to join.

Polls in recent months have consistently shown that most Israelis favour a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would free the 115 remaining hostages.

Both Mr Netanyahu and Hamas have been accused of deliberately torpedoing the talks, a claim both deny.

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Blinken says Israel has accepted U.S.-backed proposal for a cease-fire, calls on Hamas to do same

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel has accepted a bridging proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza, and called on Hamas to do the same.

He spoke Monday after holding a 2 1/2 hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the time is now to conclude a Gaza cease-fire agreement that would return hostages held by Hamas and bring relief to Palestinian suffering after more than 10 months of devastating fighting in Gaza.

Blinken’s ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the conflict began came days after mediators, including the United States, expressed renewed optimism that a deal was near. But Hamas has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the latest proposal, and Israel has said there were points on which it was unwilling to compromise.

The trip, days before new talks expected this week in Egypt, came amid fears that the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war following the targeted killing of two top militants in Lebanon and Iran that were attributed to Israel.

“This is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,” Blinken said as he opened talks with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.

“It’s also time to make sure that no one takes any steps that could derail this process,” he said in a veiled reference to Iran. “And so we’re working to make sure that there is no escalation, that there are no provocations, that there are no actions that in any way move us away from getting this deal over the line, or for that matter, escalating the conflict to other places and to greater intensity.”

Herzog thanked Blinken for the Biden administration’s support for Israel and lamented a spate of recent attacks against Israelis in the past 24 hours.

“This is the way we are living these days,” Herzog said. “We are surrounded by terrorism from all four corners of the earth and we are fighting back as a resilient and strong nation.”

Mediators will meet again this week in Cairo to try to cement a cease-fire. Blinken will travel to Egypt on Tuesday for meetings in the Mediterranean city of el-Alamein after he wraps up his Israel stop.

He met one-on-one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for 2½ hours Monday and with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant later in the day.

The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led militants broke into Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Of those, about 110 are still believed to be in Gaza, though Israeli authorities say around a third are dead. More than 100 hostages were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire.

Israel’s counterattack in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and devastated much of the territory.

Late last week, the three countries mediating the proposed cease-fire — Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. —reported progress on a deal under which Israel would halt most military operations in Gaza and release a number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of hostages.

Shortly before Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting there are areas where Israel can be flexible and unspecified areas where it won’t be.

“We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” he said.

The evolving proposal calls for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages abducted during its Oct. 7 attack. In exchange, Israel would withdraw its forces from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas accuses Israel of adding new demands that it maintain a military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent arms smuggling and along a line bisecting the territory so it can search Palestinians returning to their homes in the north. Israel said those weren’t new demands, but clarifications of a previous proposal.

Officials said the U.S. has presented proposals to bridge all the gaps remaining between the Israeli and Hamas positions. Formal responses to the U.S. outline are expected this week and could lead to a cease-fire declaration unless the talks stall, as has happened with multiple previous efforts.

Late Sunday, Hamas said in a statement that Netanyahu has continued to set obstacles to a deal by demanding new conditions, accusing him of wanting to prolong the war. It said the mediators’ latest offer was a capitulation to Israel.

“The new proposal responds to Netanyahu’s conditions,” Hamas said.

Blinken said Monday both sides should take this opportunity to reach a deal.

“It is time for everyone to get to ‘yes’ and to not look for any excuses to say ‘no,’” he said.

An Israeli delegation held talks with Egyptian officials as part of the truce efforts, an Egyptian official said Monday.

The hourslong meeting Sunday focused on the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, but didn’t achieve a breakthrough, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations.

The official said that Israel still insists on keeping control of the border and the east-west route that bisects Gaza. He said that the delegation didn’t offer anything new in their meeting.

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