Israel to free Palestinian prisoners over Kerry talks

Israel says it will release a number of Palestinian prisoners as part of an agreement made with US Secretary of State John Kerry to resume peace talks. Yuval Steinitz, minister responsible for international relations, said it would involve "heavyweight prisoners in jail for decades".

Mr Kerry announced on Friday that initial talks would be held in Washington "in the next week or so". The Israeli minister's remarks are the first details of the deal.

Mr Kerry had declined to tell reporters in Amman what the two sides had agreed to, saying that the "best way to give these negotiations a chance is to keep them private". The agreement came at the end of four days of frenetic shuttle diplomacy, on Mr Kerry's sixth visit to the region in the past few months.

Mr Steinitz told Israeli public radio that the deal adhered to the principles set out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for kick-starting the talks. The release of prisoners would take place in stages, he said.

While the number of detainees to be freed is unclear, one Palestinian official said discussions had earlier focused on the release of 350 prisoners over a period of months, including around 100 men held since before 1993, when Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords. According to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 4,817 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.

For their part, the Palestinians had committed themselves to "serious negotiations" for a minimum of nine months, said Mr Steinitz, who is a member of the prime minister's Likud party.

Anna van Densky

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