Hamas commanders have gone public with alleged confessions from senior Fatah officials regarding a plot to kill Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Senior Hamas official Said Siam held a press conference in Gaza on Saturday in which he accused senior Palestinian Authority officials of involvement in an attempt on Haniyeh’s life.
Among those accused were former PA security colonel in Gaza Nabil Tamus, who fled to Egypt during the Hamas takeover in 2007, and Tayed Abdel Rahim, a senior aide to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Siam aired videotaped confessions from several suspects as support for his claims.
Hamas leaders said the confessions made them unlikely to seek reconciliation with rival terrorist group Fatah in the near future. Senior officials in the Fatah-led PA denounced the alleged confessions as “completely false.”