RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian Arab police commanders began preparations yesterday to take control of four West Bank towns by midweek, after top Israeli and Palestinian Arab officials agreed on a security plan for the West Bank.

Transfer of the towns’ control would be the first large-scale Israeli move on the ground to acknowledge that violence has decreased significantly since Palestinians elected Mahmoud Abbas to replace the late Yasser Arafat as their leader January 9.

If the calm holds, Israel promises to move all its troops back to positions they held before the Palestinian Arab uprising began in September 2000, turning the populated areas of the West Bank back to Palestinian Arab control and making a major step toward resuming peace talks.

In another significant move, an Israeli official said amnesty would be granted for fugitive Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, ending Israel’s relentless search for dozens of terrorists suspected in attacks on Israelis. In more than four years of conflict, dozens of terrorists have been killed in Israeli raids and many more have been arrested.

The amnesty would allow Mr. Abbas to fulfill a key campaign pledge that fugitives would be allowed to reintegrate into Palestinian society with no fear of Israeli reprisal.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 Jewish settlers and their backers demonstrated last night in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Sharon’s plan to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements and four West Bank outposts this summer.

The protesters demanded a referendum on the plan, but Sharon has rejected that as a delaying tactic, and he appears to have the political muscle to push the plan through. In all, 8,500 settlers stand to be displaced.

“Ariel Sharon, you have no mandate to expel Jews,” said a pro-settler lawmaker who spoke to the crowd, Effie Eitam. The demonstrators pledged to go to Gaza to block the pullout.

Palestinian Arab officials say Mr. Abbas and Mr. Sharon have agreed to meet for the first time since 2003, when Mr. Abbas was prime minister. It would be the first meeting between an Israeli premier and a Palestinian Arab leader since 2000, when Arafat sat down with Prime Minister Barak.

February 8 was emerging as the date for the summit, which would be two days after Secretary of State Rice is scheduled to arrive in the region.

Both sides appear eager to put four years of violence behind them, but the bloodshed has frayed trust. Each side has qualified its declarations about bringing peace by saying that progress depends on the actions of the other side, and it is clear the atmosphere could sour quickly if there is a serious Palestinian Arab attack or Israeli military strike.

Israel’s Channel Two TV showed video yesterday of an advanced radar system being installed next to Gaza to monitor incoming rockets heading for Sderot, a much-battered Israeli town. The radar array is part of a joint Israeli-American system intended to destroy small rockets with laser beams.

Mr. Abbas arrived in Moscow yesterday for an official visit as part of his first foreign trip since his election. He was expected to meet with President Putin and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov today, Palestinian Arabs said.

Russia, a Cold War supporter of the Palestinian Arabs, is one of the powers behind the “road map” peace plan but has traditionally played a secondary role to Washington in Middle East peacemaking.

Late Saturday, the Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, told a senior Abbas aide, Mohammed Dahlan, that the transfer of authority in West Bank towns would begin in the coming days.

A senior Palestinian security official said control of the first four towns – Ramallah, Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, and Jericho – would be handed over Wednesday.

Israeli soldiers retook Palestinian Arab population centers in 2002 after a wave of grisly terror attacks inside Israel. Since then, Israel has pulled troops out of the towns several times, but it left a tight cordon of checkpoints around them and eventually went back in after violence resumed.

This time, security officials said Israel will dismantle roadblocks around the towns as well, allowing for more freedom of movement in the West Bank than the Palestinian Arabs have had since the violence erupted. Details of the new arrangements will be discussed by Mr. Mofaz and Mr. Dahlan on Tuesday or Wednesday, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

At their Saturday night meeting, the two also discussed the return of 39 Palestinian Arab terrorists who were deported from the West Bank in 2002 after a monthlong siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Most of the deportees will be allowed to return, said a Palestinian Arab official involved in the negotiations, but the Israeli officials could not confirm that.

Israeli and Palestinian Arab security commanders were to meet again today in what is becoming routine coordination after months of overt hostility.

Peace hopes have risen as violence has dropped.

Mr. Abbas obtained a promise from armed Palestinian Arab groups to halt attacks on Israel and has deployed Palestinian Arab police across the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel’s army chief said he would halt military operations in Gaza and scale them back in the West Bank.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Qurei met with leaders of militant groups in Gaza. Participants affirmed their agreement to suspend attacks on Israel.

Also yesterday, a 65-year-old Palestinian Arab civilian was killed by Israeli army fire along the Gaza-Egypt border, Palestinian Arab officials said. The military said the man was shot while deep inside a no-go zone, close to an Israeli army post along a patrol road near the border.