As Israel and Hamas move closer to a ceasefire agreement, Israel says it wants to maintain troops in a southern corridor of the Gaza Strip — a condition that could derail the talks.

Israel and Hamas may be able to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal within one or two weeks but such an agreement is not likely to be secured in just a day's time, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday.

Israel and Hamas are believed to have agreed that 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others should be released during the first 60 days of a cease-fire, but they have not reached a consensus on how many Palestinian prisoners should be freed during the same period. Up to 20 hostages are still thought to be alive.

Out of 251 hostages seized in the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead. At least 57,823 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

A Palestinian official says key sticking points at the indirect negotiations in Qatar include how aid will be distributed.

While UN and European officials hope that a cease-fire deal would help ease suffering among the Strip’s population, Israelis worry that as in the

As Israel and Hamas move closer to a ceasefire agreement, Israel says it wants to maintain troops in a southern corridor of the Gaza Strip — a condition that could derail the talks.

The European Union and Israel have agreed on a deal to allow more food, fuel and other vital aid into the starvation-gripped Gaza Strip, with an E.U. presence at border crossings, European and Israeli officials said Thursday.

The U.S. President said Israel “agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day ceasefire, “during which time we will work with all parties to end the war.”

At least 40 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said on Wednesday, as international mediators raced to complete a ceasefire deal.