Hamas airs "confessions of pro-Abbas plotters"

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas screened purported confessions on Saturday that it said proved Palestinian rivals had plotted to kill the Islamists' leader in the Gaza Strip.

But aides to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the allegations as lies produced under torture.

"I was told that if I blew myself up against ... Haniyeh, they would take care of my family," a young man named as Ahmed al-Dbaki and described as a would-be suicide bomber said in a film clip shown at a televised Hamas news conference in Gaza.

Among nine others whose edited video statements were screened to journalists by Hamas's security chief, one described as a senior security officer for Abbas's secular Fatah faction spoke fluently for several minutes of how he oversaw a plot to kill Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza.

"I was ordered to form an armed cell to strike the Hamas movement," the man, named as Hassan al-Zant, said. "I was instructed to find a martyr to carry out the task."

Other detainees were younger and appeared pale and hesitant.

No independent assessment was available of allegations first made last month when Hamas announced a number of arrests.

The conflicting accounts and bitterness in the opposing camps underlined the depth of the split among Palestinian leaders since Hamas defeated Abbas's Western-backed forces in Gaza in June, leaving Abbas's rule limited to the West Bank.