Hamas accuses PA over 'assassination attempt' on prime minister

Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas have publicly accused the rival Palestinian Authority (PA) of planning an assassination attempt against the head of its own Ramllah-based government.

A spokesman for the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza on Saturday accused senior PA security officials of orchestrating last month's attack to destabilise the coastal territory.

"Investigations have shown that senior figures in the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah are the engine of subversive cells that are working to undermine security in the Gaza Strip," spokesman Iyad Buzum told a press conference.

PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah was unhurt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy during a rare visit to Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Hamdallah heads the PA's West Bank-based government under the presidency of Mahmud Abbas.

The explosion put an end to an already faltering reconciliation agreement between Hamas and secularists Fatah, which dominates the PA.

Afterwards Abbas accused Hamas of carrying out the bombing.

Relations between the two largest Palestinian groups are at a low, six months after they signed a reconciliation deal aimed at ending a decade-long split.