Ramallah - Members of a Hamas cell arrested in the West Bank
last month had been tracking the movements of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas with the 'clear' intention to assassinate him, senior
officials in Abbas' Fatah party were quoted Friday as saying.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Secretary-General Tayeb Abdel Rahim had
announced the arrest of some 10 Hamas members in a news conference
Monday, saying the cell had been preparing to assassinate leading
officials in Abbas' West Bank-based administration.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Friday that since then, new
details have emerged and that Abbas himself had been among the
targets.
Hamas, the radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza, and Fatah, the
secular party of Abbas, have been locked in an at times bloody power
struggle.
The rivalry erupted after Hamas unexpectedly beat Fatah in 2006
parliamentary elections and peaked in 2007, when Hamas violently
seized sole control of Gaza by storming the headquarters of Abbas'
Fatah-dominated security forces throughout the strip.
The sides have been holding Egyptian-mediated talks in Cairo, in a
bid to reconcile their differences and allow new elections to take
place by January 2010.
'Hamas' intention was to scuttle the reconciliation talks in Cairo
and to create chaos in the West Bank, in contrast to the sense of
security that has characterized the territory for the past two
years,' Fatah spokesman Fahmi Zarir told Ha'aretz.
Ha'aretz said the Hamas members were caught not only with weapons,
but also with maps and photographs, indicating the cell was
conducting surveillance on Abbas himself.
Sources in Abbas' West Bank administration, speaking on condition
of anonymity to Ha'aretz, charged his security sources have detailed
confessions in which the suspects acknowledged planning to
assassinate several PA officials and stated they were observing
Abbas' movements.
A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has
denied the allegations.
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