Israel on Thursday began handing over the bodies of 91 Palestinians who were killed during anti-Israeli attacks, some of whom died over 40 years ago, officials on both sides said.

The transfer began before dawn on Thursday when Israel formally gave the bodies to the Palestinians at a location near the West Bank city of Jericho, with 79 of them immediately transferred to Ramallah, and the other 12 sent to Gaza.

A new Palestinian government in the West Bank featuring 11 new faces was sworn in on Wednesday at a ceremony in Ramallah, in a move which angered the Hamas government in Gaza.

Ministers, including returning prime minister Salam Fayyad, took the oath of office in the presence of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel's new unity government could help move forward the stalled peace process, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a letter to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.

The letter, which answers an earlier missive from Abbas about the stalled peace process, was delivered on Saturday, but so far, no details of its content have been made public.

A letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the stalled peace process doesn't address key issues hindering talks, the Palestine Liberation Organization said on Sunday.

Speaking after a meeting of the PLO's executive committee, secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israeli premier's message contained no answers to the questions posed in a letter by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas last month.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the United Nations to address the plight of some 1,600 Palestinian prisoners who are on a mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons that has left several detainees close to death.

Abbas raised the fate of the prisoners during discussions with the U.N.'s Middle East peace envoy Robert Serry, a statement from the U.N. official's office said.

A Cairo meeting between Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal and an official of the rival Fatah movement made no headway on the formation of a Palestinian national unity government, an official said on Thursday.

Two hours of talks Wednesday night in the Egyptian capital produced "nothing new," the Palestinian official told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The rise of Islamist parties across the region in the wake of the Arab Spring will have consequences for the Palestinians, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday in Tunis.

"The rise to power of Islamist forces in revolutionary countries will no doubt impact on the Palestinian issue," the head of the Palestinian Authority said during a four-day visit to Tunisia.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Sunday that the case of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails is to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly.

Meshaal told journalists in Cairo that he had agreed on the course of action in talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday discussed Palestinian reconciliation with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki at the start of an official visit.

The Palestinian leader was greeted with military honors at the airport by President Marzouki and president of the National Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar.

Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi on Saturday attacked Palestinian Authority "censorship" after authorities in Ramallah shut down websites criticizing President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Palestine should not promote censorship, whether on the Internet or in other forms of communication," Ashrawi, an MP and Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member said in a statement.