West Bank Settlers Back Down

MITZPEH EREZ, West Bank — Settlers backed down from threats of confrontation Wednesday and agreed not to stand in the way of the evacuation of 12 West Bank outposts the government has deemed illegal.

It was a victory for Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who can now proceed unhampered with the first major evacuation of settlements since 1995.

Clearing out the outposts sets the stage for rolling back settlements in the disputed West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish a future state.

According to the compromise published by Barak’s office, settler leaders have agreed that residents will leave the illegal outposts peacefully. Barak originally said 15 would be evacuated, but as part of the deal, the government agreed that only 12 would be evacuated initially.

Earlier, the settlers threatened a face-off with authorities, claiming the planned evacuation could lead to the kind of protests Barak wants to avoid as he heads into prickly “final-status” negotiations with the Palestinians.

Peace groups and Palestinians--who contend all settlements violate international law--said settlers were so eager to take the outposts, they often bypassed Israeli laws as well.

Meanwhile, an Islamic militant group opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process said Wednesday that it will refrain from terror attacks if Israel freezes settlement building in disputed areas and stops arresting its activists.

The offer from Hamas, made in a fax to news agencies, contained the most liberal conditions ever demanded by the group for a partial cease-fire.

The fax did not exclude the possibility of attacks on Israeli soldiers.

In yet another sign of the momentum of the interim peace agreement, more Palestinians jailed for anti-Israeli acts will be released this week, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators said.

The upcoming release, required by a September agreement, was to have taken place last week. It was postponed when the sides could not agree on a list of prisoners. But negotiators said they overcame their disagreements on the issue, and the prisoners are now scheduled for release Friday.

The delay in the agreement on prisoner releases came after the Palestinians insisted on including some prisoners jailed for killing Israelis, something Barak has repeatedly said he will not allow.