Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held their first peace talks in nearly three years on Monday, July 29, in a U.S.-brokered effort that Secretary of State John Kerry hopes will end their conflict despite deep divisions, Reuters reported.

Top aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began the talks over an iftar dinner - the evening meal with which Muslims break their daily fast during Ramadan - hosted by Kerry at the State Department.

"It is no secret this is a difficult process. If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago," Kerry said with his newly named envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, at his side.

"Many difficult choices lie ahead for the negotiators and for the leaders as we seek reasonable compromises on tough, complicated, emotional, and symbolic issues," Kerry added.

The talks started over dinner with Israel represented by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho, a close aide to Netanyahu, and the Palestinians by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Ishtyeh.

As the sides came together in Washington on Monday Kerry met separately with each, starting with the Israelis, before all came together around the dinner table. Kerry and his delegation of four, including new envoy Indyk, were seated on one side of the table and their guests on the other side, with the two main negotiators Livni and Erekat seated side by side.

"It's very, very special to be here," Kerry told his guests. "There isn't very much to talk about at all," he joked.

The parties have publicly sparred over how the negotiations will unfold, with an Israeli official saying all issues would be discussed simultaneously and a Palestinian official saying they would start with borders and security.

Speaking in Cairo on Monday, Abbas struck a hard line, saying that ultimately he did not want a single Israeli citizen or soldier on Palestinian land. His comments were made despite Kerry's wish that both sides refrain from talking publicly about issues.

Israel has previously said it wants to maintain a military presence in the occupied West Bank at the border with Jordan to prevent any influx of weapons that could be used against it.

The last direct negotiations collapsed in late 2010 over Israel's construction of Jewish settlements on occupied land it seized in the 1967 Middle East war.