Leaders of Gaza's Islamist group Hamas on Saturday 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 not hurt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy on 13 March during a rare visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Hamdallah heads the PA's West Bank-based government under the presidency of Mahmoud Abbas.

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

The explosion put an end to an already faltering reconciliation agreement between Hamas and secularists Fatah, which dominates the PA.

Hamas: Palestinian Authority General Intelligence Service was behind the bombing of the convoy of PM Rami Hamdallah in Gaza Strip last month. pic.twitter.com/EDZOEBuqPi — Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) April 28, 2018

Continued finger-pointing over the roadside bomb attack on Hamdallah's convoy looks likely to deepen the already bitter political rift.

After the blast, Abbas had accused Hamas of carrying out the bombing.

On Saturday a spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza accused senior PA security officials of orchestrating the attack to destabilise the coastal territory.

"Investigations have shown that senior figures in the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah [the PA's de facto administrative capital] are the engine of subversive cells that are working to undermine security in the Gaza Strip," spokesman Iyad Buzum told a news conference.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the allegations, and the PA rejected Hamas's accusation.

Three men identified by Hamas as suspects involved in the bombing were killed in a shootout with its forces in Gaza on 22 March. </s> Gaza's Islamist leaders Hamas on Saturday 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 Mahmud 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 the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza accused senior PA security officials of orchestrating the attack to destabilise 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. </s> Palestine Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived a roadside bomb explosion during a visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last month. The Prime Minister was unscathed by the explosion, according to an AFP report.

"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 stated at a news conference.

The explosion scuppered an already faltering reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Fatah secularists, who dominate the PA, AFP reported.

Relations between the two largest Palestinian groups have hit their lowest point a mere six months after they signed a reconciliation deal aimed at ending their decade-long confrontation. </s> Two Hamas security forces have been killed during an operation to arrest the main suspect in the bombing attack of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy last week Al Jazeera News reported.

Al Jazeera has learned that the suspect, Anas Abu Khousa, was arrested during Thursday's operation.

Khousa was injured during the raid and is reportedly in critical condition.

Several security guards of Hamdallah were wounded during the March 13 attack, which took place while the prime minister was visiting Gaza.

The blast happened shortly after Hamdallah's convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known to Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza.

Hamdallah heads the Palestinian Authority government based in Ramallah in the West Bank. </s> Two Hamas security forces have been killed in Gaza during an operation to arrest the main suspect in the bombing attack of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's convoy last week.

The suspect, Anas Abu Khousa, and an accomplice, Abdul Hadi al-Ashab, sustained critical injuries during Thursday's operation and later died of their wounds, according to the interior ministry.

Khousa and Ashab reportedly resisted arrest and exchanged fire with authorities.

Several security guards of Hamdallah were wounded during the March 13 attack, which took place while the prime minister was visiting Gaza.

The blast happened shortly after Hamdallah's convoy passed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known to Palestinians as Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza.

Hamdallah heads the Palestinian Authority government based in Ramallah in the West Bank.

President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Hamas of orchestrating the explosion.

The attack and subsequent statements by both sides mark a serious deterioration in relations between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Fatah, the ruling party within the PA, and Hamas, the party that governs the occupied Gaza Strip, signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division that saw two parallel governments operating in Gaza and the West Bank, respectively.

But the deal was never fully implemented due to differences within the two political factions, which are the largest in Palestinian politics.

Analysts said the attack on Hamdallah's convoy was intended to put a strain on reconciliation efforts. </s> An official in the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip accused a senior intelligence officer in the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, on March 13.

Rami Hamdallah’s convoy was attacked just after it crossed through the Israeli-controlled Erez checkpoint, known to Palestinians as Beit Hanoun. He was unharmed but seven security guards were wounded in the blast.

Iyad al-Bozom, the spokesman for the Hamas government’s interior ministry, said at a press conference on Saturday in Gaza:

“Our investigations were clear and complete. We are not accusing the Palestinian Intelligence, but in the course of our investigation we discovered that Brigadier-General Baha Balousha of the intelligence department orchestrated the attack.”

Al-Bozom said the suspected Palestinian Authority officers were also behind an attempt to kill Hamas’s head of security Tawfeeq Abu Naeem in October in Gaza.

Osama al-Qawasmi, a spokesman for Fatah, the main Palestinian faction in Ramallah where the PA operates, denied the allegations in a statement, and accused Bozom of engaging in “misleading theatrics”.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Hamas of orchestrating the explosion that targeted Hamdallah’s convoy. </s> Damaged vehicle of the convoy of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is seen after an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip Thomson Reuters GAZA (Reuters) - Gaza's ruling Hamas group blamed Palestinian Authority officials on Saturday for the attempted assassination in the enclave of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on March 13.

Finger-pointing over the roadside bomb attack on Hamdallah's convoy looks likely to deepen a bitter political rift between the Islamist Hamas group and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas blamed the attack on Hamas soon after the incident in Gaza, in which Hamdallah, who has spearheaded efforts by the Authority to reconcile with Hamas, was not injured.

But Eyad al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza, told a news conference on Saturday that three senior officers of Abbas's West Bank-based Palestinian Authority had masterminded the blast.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the allegations and the Authority rejected Hamas's accusation.

Three men identified by Hamas as suspects involved in the bombing were killed in a shootout with its forces in Gaza on March 22.

The Gaza Interior Ministry presented video confessions by four men it is holding in custody, who it said were part of that cell guided by the PA officers, who are based in the West Bank. It presented no further evidence.

The assassination attempt has derailed efforts to end a deep divide between the two main Palestinian factions -- Hamas, which dominates Gaza, and Abbas's Fatah, the main force in the Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of Hamas in Gaza, told a separate news conference that the suspects "wanted to kill reconciliation".

Al-Bozom said the suspected Palestinian Authority officers were also behind an attempt to kill Hamas's head of security Tawfeeq Abu Naeem in October in Gaza.

A spokesman for the Authority's security services blamed Hamas for the March 13 blast. "The more Hamas tries to evade responsibility, the deeper it sinks," Adnan al-Dmairi told Reuters by telephone. </s> "The council of ministers demands from the Hamas movement to immediately cede control over the Gaza Strip," the statement said.

According to the document, the government is ready to take responsibility for Gaza in order to save it from the dangers that surround it and prevent Israel from splitting Palestine.

The statement was issued after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had directly accused Hamas of the bomb attack on Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah's motorcade during his visit to Gaza last week and threatened to impose sanctions against the enclave.

On March 13, an explosion hit a site near Hamdallah's motorcade in the Gaza Strip. Hamdallah himself was not injured in the blast. The Palestinian National Authority placed the blame for the attack on the Hamas movement, which has been governing the Gaza Strip. Hamas, in turn, condemned the attack on Hamdallah's convoy and called on law enforcement agencies to find the perpetrators as soon as possible.

Nabil Shaath, the foreign affairs adviser of Abbas, told Sputnik in February that the intra-Palestinian reconciliation process had been put on hold, because the Hamas movement had not yet relinquished administrative control over the Gaza Strip.

READ MORE: Israeli Tanks Target Hamas Posts in Gaza in Response to Explosions — IDF

Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist organization in a number of countries, including in the United States and Israel, gained control of the Gaza Strip after a short war with Fatah in 2007. Fatah has repeatedly criticized Hamas for dividing the country and preventing the Palestinian Unity Government from ruling the Gaza Strip. </s> Anas Abu Khoussa, the suspected perpetrator of the recent bomb attack on the convoy of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, has been killed in a gun battle with security forces in the Gaza Strip.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza, Iyad Al-Bazm, said that the security services closed the Nusseirat area in central Gaza this morning, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the area, as an armed clash between the guards and the gunmen took place.

One of Abu Khoussa’s aides, Abdul Hadi Al-Ashhab, was also killed and another was arrested.

Local sources have confirmed that two security guards – Ziad Al-Hawajri and Hammad Abu Suwayrah from the Palestinian Security Services – were also killed in the gun battle.

“From the moment the prime minister was targeted, the Ministry of the Interior set up a high level security commission of inquiry to uncover the circumstances around the crime,” the government body said in a statement.

Security forces located Abu Khoussa and his aides west of the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, and besieged them, demanding they surrender, “but they immediately fired at the security force,” the statement added.

The attack on Hamdallah’s convoy took place on Tuesday last week as the prime minister and his entourage, which included Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Majed Faraj, were visiting the inauguration of a wastewater-treatment plant in the Hamas-run Gaza strip.

Seven of the security guards were injured in the bomb blast but survived, Hamdallah escaped unscathed to continue with the inauguration. On his return to Ramallah, he insisted that the attack “does not represent patriotism. It is a cowardly act that does not represent our people, nor does it represent the people of Gaza.”

The Fatah party, of which Hamdallah and President Mahmoud Abbas belong to, called it a “terrorist attack” and blamed it on Hamas.

The convoy attack reopened a longstanding rift between the Fatah party, which rules the West Bank from its capital Ramallah, and its rival party Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip. Following the assassination attempt, relations have declined up to the point that the Palestinian Authority this week demanded that Hamas hand over the Gaza Strip entirely.

Both parties signed a reconciliation agreement in October 2017, ending a decade of division and enmity between the two Palestinian factions.
Hamas accuses the Palestinian Authority of performing a bombing against its own Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah. Hamdallah escaped injury when his convoy was bombed during a visit to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip last month.