PA urges Kerry to solve Palestinian prisoners issue

The Palestinian Authority has given US Secretary of State John Kerry 24 hours to solve a dispute between the PA and Israel over the release of Palestinian prisoners.

PA officials set the deadline following a top-level leadership meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.
The PA has ruled out further negotiations with Tel Aviv unless Israel releases a group of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners held in its jails.
The group was supposed to be released as part of an agreement which brought the sides back to the negotiating table last year. But Israel has been pushing to secure an agreement for the extension of the talks before the Palestinian detainees are released.
Earlier in the day, the PA rejected as blackmail an Israeli proposal to extend its US-brokered talks with Tel Aviv beyond a nine-month deadline that expires on April 29.
The dispute between the two sides has escalated as Kerry is in Israel to prevent the talks from failing.
Kerry held discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is scheduled to meet with Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began a fresh round of talks in late July, 2013. Previous negotiations between the two sides broke down in September 2010 after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian lands.
Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds. Israel also continues to announce plans for more illegal settler units in East al-Quds and the West Bank, angering Palestinians.