AL QUDS, July 21: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Sunday he was satisfied with his meeting the night before with Palestinian officials, and said more would be held later in the week.

“The meeting touched on real problems, we managed to partly avoid polemics, and there will be other meetings of this type held in the week,” Peres told public radio.

The Palestinian delegation of five ministers was led by chief negotiator Saeb Erakat.

Israeli forces took control of most of the West Bank, including seven of its eight major towns and cities, on June 19 as a part of Operation Determined Path, aimed at rooting out militant groups behind suicide bombings and gun attacks on Israelis.

Israel has since kept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under curfew and restricted movement, causing aid groups to warn of a looming humanitarian crisis in the territory.

Erakat told AFP the talks were “serious and practical,” but added nothing had been agreed, except to hold another session between the ministers this week.

“We discussed political, economic and security issues,” he said, adding that the talks also touched on the issue of Israeli plans to deport the relatives of militants from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip, a move that has raised strong condemnation both at home and abroad.

Saturday night’s talks were the first since Peres met newly appointed Palestinian ministers on July 8 and 9 for the first high-level contacts in four months.

Those contacts were interrupted by two attacks — a bloody ambush of a Jewish settler bus in the West Bank and a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv — which killed 12 people in the worst violence since the Israeli army reoccupied most of the West Bank a month ago.—AFP