Buses carrying the inmates departed the Ayalonprison in central Israel late on Tuesday; a nighttime release that was aimed at preventing the spectacle of prisoners flashing victory signs as has happened in the past. Relatives of the victims, many with their hands painted red to symbolize what they say is the blood on the hands of the inmates, held protests throughout the day, and some protesters tried briefly to block the buses from leaving.

The decision to release the men stirred anguish in Israel, where many Israelis view them as terrorists. Most of the prisoners were convicted of killings, including Israeli civilians, soldiers and suspected Palestinian collaborators, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping.

Celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinian well-wishers awaited the buses’ arrival. Palestinians generally view the prisoners as heroes regardless of their acts, arguing they made personal sacrifices in the struggle for independence.

Fireworks lit the sky in Gaza, where rival Hamas and Fatah supporters, including several masked gunmen, celebrated to the beat of drums. Some danced while others flashed victory signs and waved flags of the Palestinian factions. Cars with loudspeakers blasted nationalistic songs.

“Today is a day of joy and happiness. I can’t wait until I hug my beloved son,” said Aicha Abu Setta, the 68-year-old mother of freed prisoner Alla Abu Setta.

“I am so excited that he will be free and he will spend his first night among us after more than 20 years,” she said, clutching a picture of her 43-year-old son, who was arrested in 1994, charged, along with his cousin, of killing a soldier.

In the West Bank, Palestinians hurled rocks at the Israeli military vehicles escorting the bus convoy as it crossed into the territory after 1am.

Tuesday’s release was part of an agreement brokered by US secretary of state John Kerry to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the table for peace talks that had been paralyzed since 2008. In all, 104 convicts are to be released in four batches, although their freedom is contingent on progress in peace talks.

Israelis and Palestinians are to launch talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday, following a preparatory round two weeks ago in Washington.

Among those released on Tuesday was a Palestinian convicted in the 1994 slaying of Isaac Rotenberg, a 69-year-old Holocaust survivor who was attacked with an axe as he was working at a construction site where he was a contractor. Others were convicted in the slayings of Ian Feinberg, an Israeli lawyer killed in a European aid office in Gaza in 1993, and Frederick Rosenfeld, an American slain while hiking in the West Bank in 1989.

Thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli prisons since Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967. They were jailed on charges ranging from throwing rocks to killing civilians in bombings, shootings and other attacks.

On Monday, Israel’s prison service posted the names online of the first 26 inmates to be released to allow for possible court appeals. Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal by families of those killed by the prisoners earlier Tuesday.

Most of the inmates already have served around 20 years, with the longest-held arrested in 1985. Fourteen of the prisoners were released to the Gaza Strip and 12 to the West Bank.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Israel angered Palestinians when it announced it was moving forward with building nearly 900 new settlement homes in east Jerusalem.

RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad resigned on Saturday, leaving the Palestinians without one of their most moderate and well-respected voices just as the U.S. is launching a new push for Mideast peace.

A statement from the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said President Mahmoud Abbas met withFayyad late in the day and accepted his resignation, thanking him for his service. According to the statement, Abbas asked Fayyad to continue to serve in his post until Abbas forms a new government.

Abbas was expected to name a new prime minister within days, according to Palestinian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Abbas and Fayyad had been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute over the extent of the prime minister’s authority. Fayyad offered his resignation on Thursday, but Abbas did not respond to Fayyad’s offer until Saturday.

His departure could spell trouble for Abbas. Fayyad, a Western-trained economist, is well respected in international circles, and he is expected to play a key role in U.S. efforts to revive peace talks.

As part of that effort, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he plans to announce a series of measures to boost the West Bank economy in the coming days. Fayyad, a former official at the International Monetary Fund with expertise in development, would be key to overseeing such projects.

Fayyad has served since mid-2007 as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, the self-rule government that administers roughly 40 percent of the Israeli-controlled West Bank. The 61-year-old political independent has focused his efforts on developing the foundations of an independent Palestinian state.

A squeaky-clean public image and willingness to take on entrenched interests has often landed him in trouble with Abbas’ long-ruling Fatah movement.

The relationship between Fayyad and Abbas has been tense for some time, and the prime minister told Abbas already late last year that he wanted to quit.

Abbas told Fayyad repeatedly to wait. But the conflict between the two escalated last month over the resignation of Fayyad’s finance minister, Nabil Kassis. Fayyad accepted the resignation, but Abbas then overruled the prime minister, effectively challenging his right to hire and fire Cabinet ministers.

Fayyad told confidants in recent days that he was determined to leave. The prime minister also complained about what he said was an attempt by leading Fatah members to undermine him.

Fayyad has good ties with the U.S. and is credited with cracking down on public corruption, securing foreign aid and preparing the groundwork and infrastructure for a future Palestinian state.

The White House said it appreciates the efforts of Fayyad and Abbas in working with the U.S. and other nations to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“Prime Minister Fayyad has been a strong partner to the international community and a leader in promoting economic growth, state-building, and security for the Palestinian people,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Saturday. “We look to all Palestinian leaders to support these efforts.”

Backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid, Fayyad has built roads and schools and promoted transparency in the government’s finances. With the Palestinian Authority stuck in a financial crisis, Fayyad has come under public criticism for the cash-strapped government’s failure to pay the salaries of teachers and civil servants on time.

Fayyad has been in office since being appointed in June 2007 by Abbas, following the takeover of Gaza by the rival Islamic militant Hamas. Fayyad’s authority is largely limited to the West Bank, while Hamas continues to control Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum criticized rival Fayyad in a statement following his resignation, saying he and his government “worked to protect the Zionist occupation and U.S. interests.”

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue “birth certificate.”

The U.N. victory for the Palestinians was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against the move to upgrade the Palestinian Authority’s observer status at the United Nations to “non-member state” from “entity,” like the Vatican.

Britain called on the United States to use its influence to help break the long impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Washington also called for a revival of direct negotiations.

There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. Three countries did not take part in the vote, held on the 65th anniversary of the adoption of U.N. resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip set off fireworks and danced in the streets to celebrate the vote.

The assembly approved the upgrade despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinians by withholding funds for the West Bank government. U.N. envoys said Israel might not retaliate harshly against the Palestinians over the vote as long as they do not seek to join the International Criminal Court.

If the Palestinians were to join the ICC, they could file complaints with the court accusing Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote “unfortunate and counterproductive,” while the Vatican praised the move and called for an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem, something bound to irritate Israel.

The much-anticipated vote came after Abbas denounced Israel from the U.N. podium for its “aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes,” remarks that elicited a furious response from the Jewish state.

“Sixty-five years ago on this day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 181, which partitioned the land of historic Palestine into two states and became the birth certificate for Israel,” Abbas told the assembly after receiving a standing ovation.

“The General Assembly is called upon today to issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded quickly, condemning Abbas’ critique of Israel as “hostile and poisonous,” and full of “false propaganda.

“These are not the words of a man who wants peace,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office. He reiterated Israeli calls for direct talks with the Palestinians, dismissing Thursday’s resolution as “meaningless.”

ICC THREAT

A number of Western delegations noted that Thursday’s vote should not be interpreted as formal legal recognition of a Palestinian state. Formal recognition of statehood is something that is done bilaterally, not by the United Nations.

Granting Palestinians the title of “non-member observer state” falls short of full U.N. membership – something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it does have important legal implications – it would allow them access to the ICC and other international bodies, should they choose to join.

Abbas did not mention the ICC in his speech. But Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters after the vote that if Israel continued to build illegal settlements, the Palestinians might pursue the ICC route.

“As long as the Israelis are not committing atrocities, are not building settlements, are not violating international law, then we don’t see any reason to go anywhere,” he said.

“If the Israelis continue with such policy – aggression, settlements, assassinations, attacks, confiscations, building walls – violating international law, then we have no other remedy but really to knock those to other places,” Maliki said.

In Washington, a group of four Republican and Democratic senators announced legislation that would close the Palestinian office in Washington unless the Palestinians enter “meaningful negotiations” with Israel, and eliminate all U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it turns to the ICC.

“I fear the Palestinian Authority will now be able to use the United Nations as a political club against Israel,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the sponsors.

Abbas led the campaign to win support for the resolution, which followed an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel’s destruction and oppose a negotiated peace.

The vote highlighted how deeply divided Europe is on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At least 17 European nations voted in favor of the Palestinian resolution, including Austria, France, Italy, Norway and Spain. Abbas had focused his lobbying efforts on Europe, which supplies much of the aid the Palestinian Authority relies on. Britain, Germany and many others chose to abstain.

The traditionally pro-Israel Czech Republic was unique in Europe, joining the United States, Israel, Canada, Panama and the tiny Pacific Island states Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia in voting against the move.

‘HOPE SOME REASON WILL PREVAIL’

Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. There are 4.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

After the vote, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice called for the immediate resumption of peace talks.

“The Palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed save that the prospects of a durable peace have only receded,” she said.

She added that both parties should “avoid any further provocative actions in the region, in New York or elsewhere.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he hoped all sides would use the vote to push for new breakthroughs in the peace process.

“I hope there will be no punitive measures,” Fayyad told Reuters in Washington, where he was attending a conference.

“I hope that some reason will prevail and the opportunity will be taken to take advantage of what happened today in favor of getting a political process moving,” he said.

Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters it was time for recently re-elected U.S. President Barack Obama to make a new push for peace.

“We believe the window for the two-state solution is closing,” he said. “That is why we are encouraging the United States and other key international actors to grasp this opportunity and use the next 12 months as a way to really break through this impasse.”

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington, Noah Browning in Ramallah, Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Robert Mueller in Prague, Gabriela Baczynska and Reuters bureaux in Europe and elsewhere; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)