Israeli and Palestinian negotiators began their first direct peace negotiations since 2010 in Jerusalem yesterday evening after the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails set the stage for the talks.

Officials on both sides maintained a silence around details of the negotiations, which US secretary of state John Kerry said he aimed to keep out of the media when he announced last month in Washington that the two sides had agreed to resume talks.

Mr Kerry, who is sponsoring the talks, says the two sides aim to negotiate a peace deal that will see an independent Palestinian state agreed in principle within nine months, or by May 2014. Just hours before the talks were to begin, Israeli aircraft attacked rocket-launching devices in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defence Forces said, in response to an attack on Tuesday night on Israel’s southern Negev region. No fatalities were reported in either strike. In the early hours of yesterday, Israel released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, who were welcomed as heroes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During five months of shuttle diplomacy leading up to the talks, Mr Kerry secured a promise from Israel to set free 104 Palestinian prisoners in four instalments in conjunction with progress in the talks.