New peace talks between Israel and Palestine

Last Wednesday for the first time in nearly five years, Israelis and Palestinians began their first formal peace talks in a renewed effort to end decades of conflict.

The Israeli government released a short video that shows key negotiators, Yitzhak Molcho and Tzipi Livni, from Israel, and Saeb Erekat, from Palestine, shaking hands in an undisclosed location, but presumably it was Jerusalem, according to an Israeli official.

The meeting began just hours after the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners by Israel, described as the first of four to be held in the coming months, as a gesture of goodwill to the dialogue process.

However, a senior Palestinian official said on last Wednesday that negotiations could collapse quickly due to the continued construction of Jewish settlements in territories conquered in the 1967 war, which are wanted by Palestinians as part of a future state.