RAMALLAH, 6 August 2007 — Almost all the gunmen with ties to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, more than 300 of them, have given up their weapons as part of an amnesty deal with Israel, a senior Palestinian security official said yesterday. The amnesty offer is part of rapidly improving relations between Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, following the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas in June.

In another sign of renewed trust, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are to meet today as part of preparations for November’s US-sponsored Mideast conference. The meeting is tentatively planned to take place in the West Bank town of Jericho, depending on whether Israeli security forces feel they can protect Olmert there. A meeting in Jericho would mark Olmert’s first visit to a Palestinian town as prime minister.

Palestinian officials said Abbas and Olmert have begun talking about a broad outline of a future peace deal. The officials said they hope such an outline could be presented to the November conference in the US. The fall of Gaza also spurred renewed coordination on security issues between Israel and the Abbas-installed government in the West Bank, after a seven-year suspension during the second Palestinian uprising.

The Palestinians are eager to restore the situation quickly to what it was before the outbreak of the uprising in September 2000, including assuming full control over West Bank cities again. Israel has agreed in principle, but the military has been slow to remove checkpoints erected across the West Bank during the uprising and for now reserves the right to chase Palestinian militants anywhere in the territory.

“So far, we are not satisfied with the progress,” said Palestinian Information Minister Riad Malki, adding that the West Bank government hopes to “take full security control of the territories.”

A major confidence booster for both sides has been Israel’s amnesty offer for gunmen from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Abbas’ Fatah movement.

Al-Aqsa was founded in the first weeks of the uprising, with the blessing of Abbas’ predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, and its members have carried out scores of attacks against Israelis.

Under the amnesty program, launched last month, more than 300 Al-Aqsa gunmen have surrendered their weapons and pledged to refrain from violence, said a senior Palestinian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the issue with reporters. He said all but three Al-Aqsa members have joined the program.

The official said 25 gunmen from Islamic Jihad have also asked for amnesty, but that the group’s leaders have vetoed the idea. Islamic Jihad is smaller than Hamas, but shares its militant anti-Israeli ideology and also gets backing from Iran. Islamic Jihad has carried out several deadly bombings.

Hamas legislator Mona Mansour, meanwhile, said that more than 400 of its activists have been detained by Abbas’ security forces in the West Bank since the fall of Gaza. Mansour said she did not know how many have since been released.

Abbas said after the Hamas takeover of Gaza that he would not tolerate militias in the West Bank, part of a campaign to prevent Hamas from gaining strength there.

In other developments, 950 Palestinians were returning to Gaza yesterday, after being stranded in Egypt since June. The travelers were among some 6,000 Palestinians trapped in Egypt by a closure of the Gaza-Egypt border, fallout from the Hamas-Fatah fighting that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

— With input from agencies