A top Palestinian security chief and loyalist to President Mahmoud Abbas was wounded in an apparent assassination attempt today when an elevator he was taking at his headquarters in the Gaza Strip exploded.The incident, in which one of General Intelligence Chief Tareq abu Rajab’s aides was killed, could inflame tension between gunmen from Abbas’s Fatah faction and militants from Hamas which heads the government. Rajab was taking an elevator surrounded by bodyguards and aides when it exploded, apparently when a bomb planted in the lift shaft was detonated, security sources said.Abbas ordered an inquiry be established to ‘‘investigate the assassination attempt against the head of general security Tareq abu Rajab . and to punish those behind the assassination attempt’’.
