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Fatah promises not to attack Israel

Scores of Fatah militants in the West Bank have signed a pledge renouncing attacks against Israel in return for an Israeli promise to stop pursuing them, a Palestinian security official said yesterday.

The deal would grant amnesty to 178 Fatah gunmen who will join the official Palestinian security forces, and Israel will remove them from its lists of wanted militants, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details of the agreement.

An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office confirmed the deal would extend to wanted militants who openly renounce terrorism, and was part of a series of measures to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Olmert will meet Abbas today, Olmert's office said, in the first meeting between the two leaders since a June 25 summit that followed the Hamas victory in Gaza. At the meeting, Olmert is expected to present a list of 250 Fatah prisoners Israel will release.

And in another gesture of support, Israel agreed to Abbas' request to allow Nayef Hawatmeh, an exiled Palestinian militant leader, to enter the West Bank this week for a meeting of a top Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) policy-making body, a step that Abbas hopes will provide him added legitimacy among Palestinians.

Hawatmeh heads the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small and nearly forgotten PLO faction best known for commandeering a school in the northern Israeli town of Maalot in 1974. The attack left 24 Israelis dead, most of them children, and helped shaped the attitudes of a generation of Israelis about the Palestinian leadership.

The amnesty document began circulating on Saturday among members of Fatah-allied militia groups dedicated to fighting Israel.

The Palestinian official said an "overwhelming majority" of the militants have already signed. The Palestinians asked that another 200 militants be included in the amnesty, he said.

Abu Obeida, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, slammed Fatah for the amnesty agreement, saying it was meant "to destroy the spirit of the resistance" and allow Israel to focus on Hamas militants.

Kamel Ghanam, a Fatah militia leader in Ramallah, said all 40 of the militia's men in the city have signed the pledge.

In Bethlehem, Amjad Khalawi, a 35-year-old Fatah gunman, signed the document and came out of hiding after six years. Khalawi said he planned to get his hair cut for the first time since going underground, and would become a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security organization.

"I am happy for this end," Khalawi said.

In other news, Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres was to be sworn in as Israel's ninth president yesterday. He was elected to the largely ceremonial post by parliament last month.
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