“Israel and the Palestinian Authority are committed to achieving peace and the sides hope that the exchange of letters between President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu will further this goal,” the statement said, according to AP.

Netanyahu had an envoy deliver a letter to Abbas on Saturday, in response to one that the Palestinian leader had sent in April stating his complaints against the Israeli government and laying out conditions for the resumption of talks.

Although the contents of Netanyahu’s letter were not released, Israel has previously stated it was ready to restart peace talks, but only if there were no preconditions, according to Al Jazeera.

Palestinians have demanded that Israel accept a two-state solution within the borders prior to the 1967 Mideast war and to stop Israeli settlement building.

The peace process has been frozen since 2010, when Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected Palestinian demands for the temporary halt on settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Approximately 500,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians currently live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while around 1,600 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails are currently on hunger strike according to Addameer support and human rights association.

Netanyahu stunned the political establishment on May 8 by forming a government unity with the main opposition group, the centrist Kadima party.

The head of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, has repeatedly accused Netanyahu for the failure of the peace talks and told reporters last week that entering new negotiations “was an iron condition for forming the unity government”.