A Palestinian delegation handed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a letter setting but the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, refused to join them for what would have been the highest-level meeting since 2010.
Netanyahu, who took the letter from top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and intelligence chief Majed Faraj, promised a written reply in two weeks.
The meeting, which took place Tuesday evening in Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home, lasted an hour-and- a-half. Netanyahu’s personal envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, was also present.
They shook hands for the camera and the atmosphere among them was cordial. The two men delivered a letter to Netanyahu from Abbas, some contents of which had already been leaked to the media in the days prior to its arrival.
"Both sides hope the exchange of letters will help find a way to advance peace," said a joint statement issued after the meeting in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian letter, from President Mahmoud Abbas, demanded a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and deplored Israel's lack of commitment to the peace process, officials said.
Fayyad had been expected to lead the Palestinian team for what would have been the highest level meeting since formal peace talks between the two sides broke off in 2010.
But he was reluctant to engage with Israel on a day when more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike in protest against their conditions in Israeli prisons, senior Palestinian officials told Reuters.
His last-minute withdrawal may also cast new light on divisions within the Palestinian political establishment, which has yet to find a strategy likely to lead to Palestinian statehood.
An Israeli official said earlier that Netanyahu would reiterate his call for talks to resume without preconditions, and for a meeting with Abbas.
During a visit to Cyprus, Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Abbas was not interested in reaching a peace agreement with Israel. “The Palestinians spend time blaming Israel rather than working to solve their own internal problems,” he said.

EJP