A series of meetings between senior Palestinian and Israeli officials has recently led to significant steps by both sides intended to defuse Israeli-Palestinian tension, and these could lead to renewed negotiations, a senior official said.

Secret contacts between the senior officials, who are representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have been taking place for several months and are still continuing, despite official peace talks that have stagnated for over a year.

In Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office denied the report. Attempts to obtain a response from chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat were unsuccessful.

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Sources say both sides have taken a number of steps over the past three months, including, on Israel’s part, a slowdown in settlement construction, in a bid to calm the situation in light of the instability spreading across the Middle East.

The steps were taken “not by agreement but as part of a reassessment of the situation in the region,” a Palestinian official said.

Palestinian measures have included halting, for the time being, applications to join UN agencies and other international bodies as part of the Palestinian statehood drive.

Israeli authorities have slowed down construction in West Bank settlements and have increased permits for West Bank Palestinians to pray at the Temple Mount over the Ramadan holy month in a bid to show real will to improve ties.

“Each side understands the other side’s needs,” a source told The Times of Israel.

While Israeli construction in the West Bank has continued, new permits for future building plans have been held up for months.

An Israeli source defined ongoing construction as continuing “natural expansion” but nothing beyond that.

Some Israeli sources attributed the slowdown to concerns over international backlash and not to understandings with the Palestinian Authority, though it was not clear if they all knew about the secret contacts between Israel and the PA.

On Monday, settler leaders accused Netanyahu of freezing construction and of telling a closed Likud meeting that he had international pressures to worry about. The Likud party denied the claim.

Senior Palestinian officials say additional steps aimed at improving trust between Netanyahu and Abbas and between Israel and the PA be taken place soon.

Among them, a senior Israeli minister is expected to meet a senior PLO and Fatah official in a foreign country, at the end of next week.

The PA also expects Israel to unfreeze some economic plans for Area C of the West Bank (where Israel is in full control). Reunification of Palestinian families and permits for the Palestinian security apparatus to purchase more arms are also apparently in the offing.