RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Monday it dismantled a Hamas cell that was planning attacks against Palestinian leaders and public buildings in the West Bank.
PA secretary general Tayeb Abdelrahim claimed the plotters hoped to torpedo reconciliation talks between Fatah, the party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian mediators hope to persuade the two groups to sign a national unity agreement on July 7.
Abdelrahim said the members of the cell were arrested over the past days, without specifying how many arrests were made.
"Interrogation revealed that the leadership in Gaza of Hamas and (its armed wing) Qassam told them to carry out terrorist attacks on personalities and institutions of the PA," he said at a news conference.
"They admitted that their leaders asked them to commit those attempts on July 7, date of the signing of the reconciliation accord we are determined to reach."
"We are now convinced (Hamas) doesn't want to reach an accord in Cairo," Abdelrahim said.
The PA announced earlier on Monday it intended to release about 100 security detainees to encourage the Egypt-brokered unity talks with Hamas.
Security forces loyal to Abbas and dominated by his secular Fatah party have been confined to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since June 2007, when Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in a week of bloody street battles.
Since then the two main Palestinian movements have accused each other of arresting scores of rivals and mistreating prisoners in the territories they control.
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