Ateya Abu Moussa, held prisoner by Israel for the past 20 years, receives a kiss from his father in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip after he and 25 Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel. The release was billed as a confidence-building move ahead of resumption of the peace negotiations. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations being overshadowed by settlement approval

Israel and the Palestinians were scheduled to hold their first direct talks in almost three years on Wednesday, but a deepening rift over settlements has overshadowed the negotiations.

The resumption of the fragile peace negotiations comes just hours after the release of the prisoners as a confidence-building gesture, and a day after Israeli authorities announced the approval of 942 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, provoking Palestinian fury.

Jerusalem city authorities said that although they had only now granted final approval for the new homes in Gilo, an existing settlement in east Jerusalem, they had been in the works for years.

At the weekend, Israel's housing ministry announced tenders for the construction of 793 settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem and 394 elsewhere in the West Bank.

Senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Yasser Abed Rabbo said the "unprecedented" announcements threatened to make the talks fail even before they have started.

The previous peace talks broke down in 2010 over the issue of settlement building.

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, US Secretary of State John Kerry, whose dogged shuttle diplomacy brought about the first round of talks in Washington two weeks ago, phoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas late on Tuesday, a senior source said.

"The call Abbas received tonight from Kerry is part of ongoing US efforts to defuse a crisis before the talks begin, as a result of the new settlement tenders today and in the past few days," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We are waiting for the United States to take a clear stance on the escalating settlement building, which we consider the biggest obstacle that Israel is creating to stop serious talks from happening."

Abbas' office also confirmed he had received a phone call from Kerry "to discuss developments in the peace process, on the eve of the resumption of negotiations".

A few hours before the expected start of the Wednesday talks, Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners.

A group of 15 crossed into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and were mobbed by relatives as they got out of a bus next to the border.

At about the same time, another 11 prisoners arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to a welcome from Abbas and thousands of cheering, dancing supporters.

"This is the first group," Abbas told the crowd at a welcoming ceremony at his Muqataa headquarters compound."We shall continue until we free all the prisoners from Israeli jails," he said.

The 26 were the first batch of 104 long-term detainees who are to be freed in stages as part of a US-brokered deal, which brought Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table on July 30 for the first time in nearly three years.

The prisoner release has been billed as a confidence-building gesture ahead of the meeting of negotiators in Jerusalem, which was expected to take place at the King David Hotel in the presence of US mediator Martin Indyk.

Israeli and Palestinian officials have not commented on the exact time of the meeting.

(China Daily 08/15/2013 page10)