Israel alleges plot to kill Lieberman

Israel has arrested four Palestinians suspected of plotting in July-August to kill Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, officials say.

A statement issued by Israel's domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said three of those detained were members of the Islamist group Hamas, the dominant force in the Gaza Strip.

The statement quoted the detainees as saying they had hoped killing Lieberman would cause Israel to stop its offensive on Gaza in the summer, in which some 2,100 Palestinians were killed, according to United Nations estimates.

Shin Bet said the four Palestinians had gathered information on the movements of the far-right Lieberman, who has a home in the Nokdim settlement in the occupied West Bank. The intelligence service said the arrested men had tried to obtain a rocket-propelled grenade to attack the minister's convoy on its way to the settlement.

The statement claimed the alleged plot was a sign that Hamas was stepping up its militant activities in the West Bank and adjoining East Jerusalem.

'Legitimate targets'

Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, saying it had no information on the matter. However, a spokesman for the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Hamas considered Israeli leaders who were involved in the decision to attack Gaza as "legitimate targets for the resistance."

Israel launched its 50-day summer offensive on Gaza with the stated aim of stopping Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli territory from the enclave.

Since then, tensions have continued to rise between Israelis and Palestinians amid a controversy about access to Jerusalem's most sacred compound, which houses both Islam's third-holiest mosque and sites of extreme religious importance to Jews.

tj/ipj (Reuters, dpa)