Israel agrees to release Palestinian prisoners as sides head to peace talks

Talks on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians stalled more than three years ago. Photo / AP

Israel's Cabinet endorsed the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, paving the way for the resumption of peace negotiations in Washington DC as early as tomorrow.

The approval, by a vote of 13 to 7 with two abstentions, came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while difficult, especially for the families of terrorist victims, the move was essential in order to resume the "political process" with the Palestinians.

The releases are due to take place in batches after the renewal of talks.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right Jewish Home party, opposed the releases, saying "terrorists should be killed, not set free".

But Netanyahu appears to have staved off the feared collapse of the ruling coalition - of which Jewish Home is a member - as Israel moves towards talks with the Palestinians for the first time in more than three years.

Bennett, who favours annexing most of the occupied West Bank, praised a separate Cabinet decision that any agreement with the Palestinians that included a territorial withdrawal would have to be submitted to a referendum. That decision has infuriated Tzipi Livni, the Cabinet's chief peace negotiator and a leading advocate of a two-state solution, who has threatened to quit the coalition if Netanyahu bows to hardliners opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Expectations are low for the talks, both sides seen as having agreed to them to avoid affront to America and John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, who made six trips to the region to prod the parties towards the table.

Netanyahu's agreement to release prisoners, who've been held since before the 1993 Oslo agreement with the Palestinians, spares him from making more difficult concessions in line with Palestinian demands. They had called for a halt to illegal Israeli settlement construction and a commitment to the 1967 borders - before Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank - as the basis for a peace deal with land swaps.

"This is not an easy moment for me, not easy for the ministers and especially difficult for the bereaved families," Netanyahu said. "But there are moments I need to make tough decisions for the good of the country ... I believe resuming the political process at this time is important for Israel."

Nearby, hundreds of relatives of the Palestinian prisoners' victims protested, families holding up pictures of dead relations and chanting "terrorists must not be freed". One of those to be freed is Mohammed Daoud, convicted in 1989 of throwing a petrol bomb that killed a pregnant woman and her 5-year-old son.