Hamas members planned attacks on Palestinian Authority (PA) officials in the West Bank on orders from Hamas leaders abroad and the group’s armed wing in Gaza, a senior official said on Monday.
At-Tayib Abdul Rahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian Presidency reveled the alleged plot at a news conference in Ramallah. He said the PA learned of the plans from interrogations of Hamas prisoners.
He said that a Hamas cell had planned the attack ahead of the 7 June deadline set by Egypt for an agreement between Hamas and Fatah.
Hamas has not yet responded to these charges.
“We learned that some Hamas affiliates were told to prepare to distribute sweets on 1 July at 2:00pm after attacks are completed,” Abdul Rahim asserted.
He said however that the security situation was under control and that all those who prepared to undertake attacks against PA officials would be arrested.
“These directives, and these intended attacks are aimed only at thwarting dialogue on 7 July, and that indicates Hamas is not ready to sign agreement in Cairo,” Abdul Rahim added. He threatened to reveal the details of these Hamas plans to the public if that would be a necessity.
Abdul Rahim also said that concerned Arab states’ leaders had been updated on the details of the newly revealed Hamas plots.
The Palestinian presidency secretary-general reiterated that Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip had detained about 100 Fatah affiliates including members of the movement’s Revolutionary Council as well as regional leaders. He also mentioned that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas gave directives to release 100 Hamas-affiliated detainees in the West Bank.
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