GAZA CITY, 24 October 2005 — Israel yesterday backed down from its campaign to keep Hamas out of Palestinian parliamentary elections and the Palestinian Authority announced plans to induct fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades into police.

Israel has been trying to rally international opposition to Hamas’ participation in the January parliamentary vote for several months, but has made little progress. In the latest setback, US President George W. Bush did not publicly call for Hamas to be excluded from the vote during a meeting last week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

While remaining adamantly opposed to Hamas’ involvement in the election, Israel will not prevent the group from fielding candidates, Israeli officials said yesterday. “Are we going to go to war on this issue or interfere on this issue? No,” one official said.

Still, they warned that peace talks could not progress if an armed Hamas committed to Israel’s destruction would be part of the Palestinian government. “This organization will not be a legitimate partner for peace,” said one official. “It’s Hamas or us.”

The Israeli position marks a turnaround. On the sidelines of a UN conference last month, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told world leaders that Israel would not cooperate in the Palestinian elections unless Hamas disarmed and abolished its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction.

Israeli assistance is considered vital for smooth elections: In January, when Abbas was elected to replace the late Yasser Arafat, Israel opened West Bank roadblocks and eased other restrictions.

While in New York, Sharon asked world leaders to support his efforts to tame Hamas before the Palestinian vote. But Israel’s call to keep an armed Hamas out of the elections has gained little backing in the international community. Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, urged Israel not to interfere as the Palestinian political process evolves.

In his meeting in Washington last week with Abbas, Bush cautioned that “armed gangs” present a threat to the creation of a democratic Palestine, but did not call publicly for Hamas to be excluded from Palestinian parliamentary balloting.

In Ramallah, Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef said the Palestinian Authority was looking to incorporate Fatah’s armed faction, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, into the official security apparatus.

“We are making efforts to finish the Aqsa Brigades and bring them inside the security apparatus and protect them,” Yussef told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei and West Bank security chiefs.

“We have a plan to train them in the Palestinian security forces. This plan will begin in the next few weeks.” The Brigades has refused to lay down its weapons in the aftermath of Israel’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip despite appeals by Abbas.

While nominally loyal to the Palestinian Authority, the Brigades is made up of largely autonomous cells and is much stronger in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip.

Qorei said: “We have agreed today to establish five new camps for training and hosting ‘stragglers.”’ He said the disarmament efforts would begin in the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus, and then move into other areas.

— Additional input from agencies