RAMALLAH, West Bank, 15 July 2007 — Israel will stop hunting dozens of wanted Fatah gunmen in the West Bank if they undertook not to indulge in any military action against the Jewish state in the frame of an agreement aimed at bolstering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian security official said yesterday.
“Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed on an amnesty for dozens of wanted activists affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s military wing in the West Bank,” the official said.
He added that 178 wanted Fatah gunmen, including Zakariya Az-Zubeidi and Kamal Ghannam, the Al-Aqsa commanders in Jenin and Ramallah, were included in a list agreed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
The Palestinian Authority is pushing Israel to let up on another 206 wanted Fatah men in an effort to bolster Fatah in the West Bank after its defeat at the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials said Israel rejected this second list over 28 men Tel Aviv believed had “blood on their hands.” Israeli and Palestinian security officials will meet tomorrow to discuss this list, the official said.
Palestinian negotiators pledged that pardoned Fatah gunmen would not engage in military activities against Israel and would be disarmed after Israel threatened to hunt those who engage in plotting military attacks.
According to the official, the Fatah gunmen would be asked to remain one week in one of the bases belonging to the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, and then stay an additional three months within the confines of the Palestinian territories designated “A territories” under the Oslo accords, which used to be under full security control of the Palestinian Authority, the status Israel ended by reoccupying West Bank cities in its large-scale military operation in April 2002.
If they honored the agreement, the Fatah men would be able to travel throughout the West Bank without fearing arrest, as well as abroad, the Palestinian official said.
A senior Israeli government official said several weeks ago that Fatah’s West Bank fugitives constituted the force most dedicated to standing up to Hamas.
Hamas yesterday charged that Abbas’ decision on Friday to convert his emergency government into a caretaker one was unconstitutional and constituted a coup against the “legitimate Palestinian government.”
Ismail Redwan, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, said that Ismail Haniyeh has been chairing Palestinian caretaker government according to the basic law after Abbas dissolved the national unity government.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-dominated Parliament called for a session tomorrow to discuss the issue. Salah Al-Bardaweel, spokesman for Hamas lawmakers, said the Palestinian Legislative Council will vote against Abbas’ decision to extend the state of emergency. “The emergency can’t be extended without the approval of two-thirds of the PLC members... and if a session is not convened, the state of emergency would be canceled,” Al-Bardaweel added in a press statement.
