The US has announced peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, which halted in 2010, will begin again on Monday.
It comes after Israel agreed to release 104 long-held Palestinian prisoners as part of a US-brokered deal to get both sides to the negotiating table after a three-year diplomatic standstill.
The list of the prisoners has been provided by the Palestinians, who have made their release a condition of participating in Washington-based discussions.
The US State Department announced on Sunday that the two sides had accepted invitations from Secretary of State John Kerry to come to Washington "to formally resume direct final status negotiations."
In a statement, department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Mr Kerry had called both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday and said they agreed that the talks would "serve as an opportunity to develop a procedural work plan for how the parties can proceed with the negotiations in the coming months."
"Both leaders have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult decisions that have been instrumental in getting to this point," Mr Kerry said in the statement. "We are grateful for their leadership."
The prisoner release decision, which is highly contentious in Israel, will see the release of prisoners who have served between 19 and 30 years for taking part in deadly attacks on Israel in four stages over nine months.
The vote saw 13 ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 22-strong cabinet vote in favour of the wide-scale release. Seven voted against and two abstained, according to a government official.
A statement released by the prime minister's office following the vote said: "The government approved the opening of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians ... and mandated a ministerial committee for the release of prisoners during the course of the talks."
As part of the deal, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, they agreed to talks despite Israel's refusal to stop settlement building on land the Palestinians consider should be theirs.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, hailed the vote and said: "We welcome the Israeli government's decision to release the prisoners.
"We consider this an important step and hope to be able to seize the opportunity provided by the American administration's efforts."
The talks between the two sides, the first since discussions stalled in September 2010, are due to begin on Tuesday.
The Palestinians want to establish a state which comprises the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, lands which the Israelis captured in the 1967 six-day war.
Late last year, the UN General Assembly recognised the State of Palestine within those 1967 borders.
In an attempt to secure talks as a precursor to the restarting of proper peace negotiations, Mr Netanyahu wrote an open letter to the Israeli public.
In it he said: "I agreed to release 104 Palestinians in measured stages, after the start of the negotiations and in accordance with their progress.
"This is an incredibly difficult decision. It's painful to the bereaved families, it pains the entire people of Israel, and it's very painful to me."
Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club which tracks the well-being of Palestinians in Israeli jails, said there would be no talks unless all 104 prisoners returned to their homes.
"If they don't free all of them, there will be no negotiations," he told public radio.
In past deals, Israel has expelled some freed prisoners from the occupied West Bank or annexed east Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip or abroad, but Fares said that would not be acceptable this time.
"Expulsion is punishment," he said. "These people, who are now over 50 years old, all of them sick, need to be released to their homes."
Around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails, according to the latest figures at the end of June.
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