Israel Backwaters On Amnesty Offer?

Israel Denies Amnesty Offer Report

19 August 2007

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel denied on Sunday it had submitted to a Palestinian security official a list of 110 militants whom he said Israeli forces would stop pursuing in the occupied West Bank.

"The report is not true. There is no such list," Israeli government spokesman David Baker said.

Akram Rajoub, head of the Preventive Security Forces in the West Bank city of Nablus, said on Saturday that Israeli officials had given him a list of 110 Palestinians set to receive amnesty.

Rajoub said those on the roster were to surrender their weapons and sign documents saying they would not launch attacks on Israel. Israeli officials declined to comment on his remarks on Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pledged a series of steps aimed at strengthening Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is in a power struggle with Hamas Islamists.

Last month, Israel granted amnesty to 178 militants from Abbas's secular Fatah faction and released 250 Palestinian prisoners, mostly Abbas loyalists.

Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after routing Abbas's security forces, leading the Palestinian president to set up a Western-backed government in the West Bank.