Ramallah, West Bank ? Most gunmen with ties to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement have given up their weapons as part of an amnesty deal that seeks to improve ties between Israel and Abbas’ moderate Palestinian leadership, a senior Palestinian security official said Sunday.

Relations between Israel and the moderate leaders in the West Bank have been improving rapidly since the violent takeover of Gaza by Fatah’s rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, in June.

A major confidence booster for both sides has been Israel’s amnesty offer for gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent Fatah offshoot that has carried out scores of attacks against Israelis since 2000.

Under the program launched last month, more than 300 Al Aqsa gunmen have surrendered their weapons to Palestinian authorities and pledged to refrain from violence, said a senior Palestinian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

He said all but three Al Aqsa members have joined the program.

The official said 25 gunmen from Islamic Jihad also signed the pledge and handed in their guns, defying the group’s leaders, who have vetoed the idea. Islamic Jihad shares the militant anti-Israeli ideology of Hamas, also gets backing from Iran and has carried out several deadly suicide bombings in Israel.

Israeli officials said they could not immediately verify the Palestinian officials’ account, but they did not express doubts about it. They also could not immediately say whether groups other than Al Aqsa were eligible for the amnesty program.

In other developments, 950 Palestinians were returning Sunday to Gaza, after being stranded in Egypt since June.