Hamas says it has foiled Fatah plot to kill leader
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed. Tension between Islamist Hamas...
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed.
Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank.
"There was a plan by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt to assassinate Haniyeh as he prayed in the mosque. He was arrested and confessed," Saeed Seyam, who oversees Hamas government security forces in Gaza and is a former interior minister in the Hamas government, told reporters.
Haniyeh was prime minister of the Hamas-led government which Abbas sacked after the Gaza takeover.
A Fatah spokesman dismissed Sayam's allegations.
Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank.
"There was a plan by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt to assassinate Haniyeh as he prayed in the mosque. He was arrested and confessed," Saeed Seyam, who oversees Hamas government security forces in Gaza and is a former interior minister in the Hamas government, told reporters.
Haniyeh was prime minister of the Hamas-led government which Abbas sacked after the Gaza takeover.
A Fatah spokesman dismissed Sayam's allegations.