Hamas accuses PA over premier assassination attempt

Gaza’s Islamist leaders Hamas publicly accused the rival Palestinian Authority (PA) of planning an assassination attempt against the head of its own government.

PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah, was unhurt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy during a rare visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza last month. Hamdallah heads the PA’s West Bank-based government under the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas.

The explosion put an end to an already faltering reconciliation agreement between Hamas and secularists Fatah, which dominates the PA. Afterwards Abbas accused Hamas of carrying out the bombing. But on Saturday a spokesman for Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza accused senior PA security officials of orchestrating the attack to destabilize the coastal territory.

“Investigations have shown that senior figures in the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah are the engine of subversive cells that are working to undermine security in the Gaza Strip,” spokesman Iyad Buzum told a press conference.

Relations between the two largest Palestinian groups are at a low, six months after they signed a reconciliation deal aimed at ending a decade-long split.