Palestinian president ally accused of PM assassination plot

The ruling Hamas party has accused a key ally of president Mahmoud Abbas of trying to assassinate the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, inflaming tensions between rival Palestinian factions to their highest point in a decade.

The heated accusations came after several days of bloodshed and the collapse of talks between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah Party on setting up a joint government.

Shots were fired on Haniyeh’s entourage, capping hours of heavy battles on the Gaza-Egypt border between Hamas gunmen and the Fatah-allied Presidential Guard.

Hamas said the attack on the convoy, in which a bodyguard was killed, was an attempt to assassinate Haniyeh and blamed Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas ally.