Israel grants amnesty to wanted Fatah fighters

Israel has proclaimed an amnesty for at least 178 Fatah gunmen on its "wanted" list in the West Bank. Most of them immediately pledged to stop targeting Israel and placed themselves under the supervision of President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian security services.

One of the most conspicuous fighters, Zakaria Zubeidi, commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Jenin, said: "The Al Aqsa Brigades activists have pledged to cease attacks against Israel. We won't be an obstacle to any political project aimed at solving the Palestinian question."

Amjad Khalawe, a 38-year-old fugitive who had not had his hair cut since he went on the run six years ago, returned to his home in the Deheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem. He became engaged just before going underground. He said he intended to marry his fiancée as soon as possible.

The amnesty is part of a package of Israeli measures designed to bolster Mr Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas, which seized power last month in the Gaza Strip. Mr Abbas is due to meet Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, in Jerusalem today.

Israel is also allowing some veteran Palestinian fighters to return to the West Bank for a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's half-forgotten central council. It is meant to grant legitimacy to Mr Abbas's emergency government, whose mandate ran out last week.

The leaders include Nayef Hawatmeh, the 72-year-old founder of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose gunmen killed 22 schoolchildren in a 1974 raid on the northern border town of Ma'alot.

Despite protests from right-wing politicians and bereaved families, Matan Vilna'i, Israel's Deputy Defence Minister, said: "Even though Hawatmeh dealt with terrorism in the past, under the current circumstances he is proving to be a person capable of contributing towards leading the Palestinians to a more rational condition."

Farouk Kaddoumi, an exiled hardliner living in Tunis and a former PLO foreign minister, is also to be allowed to enter the occupied West Bank.

On Tuesday, Israeli ministers are expected to approve a list of 250 Fatah prisoners due to be released as another gesture to the Palestinian President. Mr Olmert has been at pains to ensure that the list cannot be dismissed as window-dressing.

Mark Regev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "The list contains no one who would have been getting out anyway in the coming year. It contains no one who wasn't jailed for security violations. There are no car thieves, no drug peddlers, no prostitutes. There are people who would have been sitting in jail till 2015."

There is still no sign, however, that Israel is preparing to open the Karni freight crossing, the lifeline of the stricken Gaza economy. Bassim Khoury, chairman of the Palestinian Federation of Industries, told reporters in Jerusalem yesterday that 80 per cent of industry in Gaza was shut down. About 3,000 factories had closed in the last month alone. He warned that unemployment there would top 70 per cent if Karni was not opened soon.

Mr Regev responded that Israel had no interest in keeping the crossing closed, and accused Hamas of breaking an agreement with Mr Abbas to maintain security on the Gaza side of the terminal. "We are willing to open the terminal the minute the Palestinians get their act together," he said.

Mr Regev said Israel was open to "creative solutions involving third parties". One such initiative, being floated by Palestinian and Israeli businessmen, is for Turkey to supervise the Gaza side. Ankara is considering the idea.

* Shimon Peres, who will be 84 next month, was sworn in last night as Israel's ninth president. The elder statesman vowed to encourage the peace process with Israel's neighbours.

Hawatmeh allowed home

* Nayef Hawatmeh, the hardline Palestinian activist, founded the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in 1969. A rival of Yasser Arafat, Mr Hawatmeh criticised the 1993 peace deal with Israel. During the 1970s, he presided over a period of increased terrorist activity by the DFLP, most notably the Ma'alot school bombing in 1974 that killed 22 children. The 1990s saw the DFLP scale down its terrorist campaign and Mr Hawatmeh adopt a friendlier stance towards Israel, famously shaking hands with the then Israeli president, Ezer Weizman. He condemned the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was said to be involved in recent talks to unite Hamas and Fatah.