OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Jan 29 (NNN-QNA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners as part of efforts backed by the United States and Egypt to jump-start the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

According to the Hebrew newspaper “Haaretz”, Netanyahu expressed a willingness to release prisoners following his talks with the special US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell.

Under the plan, Israel is expected to release hundreds of Fatah prisoners to the West Bank and ease travel in the West Bank.

These would largely be prisoners with only a little time left in their sentences, the newspaper reported Friday.

Haaretz quoted a senior source in Jerusalem as saying that Mitchell presented a new proposal to lead indirect negotiations in the format of proximity talks, similar to the indirect negotiations that Israel held with Syria under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

– NNN-QNA

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