DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND: IN ORDER TO GIVE A BOOST TO ABBAS, PALESTINIAN JIHADISTS RENOUNCE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL

Palestinian militants renounce anti-Israel attacks

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Dozens of wanted Palestinian militants have made a rare pledge to halt anti-Israel attacks in a deal aimed at bolstering moderate president Mahmud Abbas in his battle for authority with Hamas, officials said on Sunday.

The pledge, part of a deal in which Israel offered an effective amnesty to the gunmen, was unveiled a day before Abbas is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.

In another move to strengthen Abbas, the Jewish state has authorised veteran Palestinian nationalist Nayef Hawatmeh, head of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), to visit the occupied West Bank for the first time in 40 years, an Israeli security official told AFP.

Israel handed the Palestinians a list of 189 militants, most from Abbas’s secular Fatah party, saying it would take them off its wanted list if they pledged to stop activities against the Jewish state.

‘All of the 189 people included on the list handed in by Israel’ have signed, a senior Palestinian security official said.

Israel has said that if the men hand in their weapons, respect their promise for three months, and not leave West Bank areas under exclusive control of the Palestinian Authority, their names will be erased from the list of wanted men.

...



Pertinent Links:

1) Palestinian militants renounce anti-Israel attacks