Leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organisation have given their backing to indirect peace talks with Israel.
The decision was announced after a three-hour meeting of the PLO’s Executive Committee in the West Bank.
US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell is in the region trying to launch such indirect negotiations, known as proximity talks.
The Palestinians broke off peace talks after Israel launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza in late 2008.
Attempts to re-start talks in March were delayed by a row over Israeli building in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.
Under the proximity talks, Mr Mitchell will shuttle between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to narrow their differences.
“As far as we are concerned, the start of the indirect negotiations can be announced today,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying after the meeting.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, had urged the PLO to reject the proximity talks.
“We warn the executive of PLO not to take any decision to resume talks with the enemy and to give cover to the Israeli occupation to commit more crimes against our people,” a statement said.
The Palestinians pulled out of talks in March after an announcement that Israel had approved plans for new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo during a visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden.
The move strained Israeli-US relations.
The Palestinian Authority’s formal position is that it will not enter direct talks unless Israel completely halts building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In November, Israel announced a 10-month suspension of new building in the West Bank, under heavy US pressure.
But it considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory and thus not subject to the restrictions.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. It insists Jerusalem will remain its undivided capital, although Palestinians want to establish their capital in the east of the city.
Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements in the West Bank, among a Palestinian population of about 2.5 million.
The settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.













