Buses carried 26 Palestinian former inmates from a prison in central Israel to the crossings to the West Bank and to the Gaza Strip, part of the deal that will see peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians resume this week.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas greeted the 11 Palestinians sent to the Beitunia crossing in the West Bank, while crowds met the other 15 at the Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip.

The talks had been stalled for three years until US Secretary of State brought both sides together in Washington last month.  Negotiators from both sides are supposed to resume on Wednesday afternoon in Jerusalem, the city at the heart of the decades-old conflict.  

Follow-up meetings are expected every few weeks in venues including Jericho in the occupied West Bank in pursuit of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's rather ambitious goal of reaching an accord in nine months.