Palestinians Offer Amnesty for Informers

Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s government Monday offered amnesty to suspected collaborators with Israel--an apparent attempt to blunt international outrage over executions of informers and to thwart Israel’s campaign of assassinating Palestinian militants.

Despite this shadowy war fought by the two sides, peace talks were to resume today, after a day’s break called by Israel over the killing of a Jewish settler by Palestinians near his greenhouse in the Gaza Strip.

In response to the slaying, Israeli troops reimposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, closing the Palestinians’ international airport and border crossings. Troops blocked major roads, cutting the strip into three parts.

After 34-year-old Roni Tzalah’s body was found Monday in an orange grove near the Kfar Yam settlement, a group of settlers went on a rampage in a nearby Palestinian village. They burned a greenhouse, smashed car windows and fired weapons toward homes.

In the West Bank village of Kfar Salem, a Palestinian man was shot and killed in a clash with Israeli troops. Earlier, shots were fired from Kfar Salem at an Israeli convoy, injuring a motorist. In another West Bank village, Burkin, the body of a suspected informer for Israel was discovered, Palestinian police said.

More than 350 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in more than three months of violence.

The amnesty announcement came amid world anger over the executions Saturday of two men convicted of helping Israel assassinate a Palestinian bomb maker in November. The men were executed by firing squad--one at a soccer field in Gaza City, the other at a public square in the West Bank town of Nablus--as relatives wailed and hundreds cried, “God is great!”

The executions triggered international criticism, and the European Union asked Arafat to commute two additional death sentences handed down over the weekend.

Palestinian Justice Minister Freih abu Medeen said Monday that suspected collaborators with Israel who turned themselves in within the next 45 days would not be punished. Instead, the Palestinian Authority would offer them protection and jobs and would guarantee secrecy.

Six informers responded to the offer Monday, officials said.