Palestinian gunmen opened fire near prime minister Ismail Haniya's convoy on Friday as the embattled Hamas government again refused to recognise Israel amid ongoing political deadlock and crisis.
The shooting, which Haniya's entourage immediately dismissed as a "coincidence", came after faction representatives claimed to have reached yet another agreement to end a recent bout of deadly inter-Palestinian clashes.
As Haniya's car pulled out of a central Gaza Strip refugee camp after he delivered a characteristically hardline sermon at Friday prayers, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on his convoy, witnesses said.
His vehicle was not hit and Haniya escaped unscathed, but a car belonging to a Hamas paramilitary force -- responsible for protecting the prime minister -- was set ablaze in the Nusseirat camp.
Witnesses said the gunmen were relatives of a Palestinian killed on October 1, a day of deadly clashes between Hamas paramilitaries and mainstream security services loyal to the once dominant Fatah party.
But government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said Haniya's convoy had not been the target. He said a shootout between the dead man's relatives and Hamas force members merely "coincided" with the departure of the premier's convoy.
"The convoy was not directly targeted and no one was injured," he added.
During his sermon, Haniya flatly ruled out any alternatives to a national unity government as advanced by his nemesis and Fatah stalwart, president Mahmud Abbas, for ending an unparalleled political and financial crisis that has blighted the Palestinians since the Western-boycotted Hamas took office.
"If they imagine that we can belong to a government that recognises the legitimacy of the occupation and abandons the resistance, they will be waiting a long time," he said.
The deep-rooted Palestinian crisis, stemming from an international political and financial boycott of the Hamas administration, has sparked deadly firefights between Fatah and Hamas in which dozens have been killed.
Talks on a government of national unity between Fatah and Hamas are deadlocked over the Hamas refusal to renounce violence, agree to abide by past peace deals or recognize Israel -- even implicitly.
In the absence of an agreement after Ramadan ends, Abbas has said he is willing to appoint a government of independent technocrats.
His aides have evoked more radical proposals, such as appointing an emergency government, dissolving the Hamas-dominated parliament and calling snap elections, or organising a referendum on the moderate political platform.
"All these ideas have only one goal, to chase Hamas out of power as America wants," Haniya charged in his sermon.
Stepping up the rhetoric in a speech to supporters in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, foreign minister Mahmud Zahar branded Israel a "tumour", and insisted Hamas could never recognise the Jewish state.
"Israel is a tumour implanted on our land. Israel has no historic, religious or cultural legitimacy. We cannot have relations with a tumour," he told a crowd of thousands.
"No recognition of Israel at any price. It's a finite and non-negotiable decision," repeated Zahar, who is close to exiled politburo chief Khaled Meshaal.
Abbas has vowed to take "decisive decisions" to form a new government acceptable to Western donors and overcome the punishing aid freeze on the Palestinian Authority imposed after the elected Hamas took power in March.
A Fatah spokesman said earlier on Friday that his party and Hamas had agreed to work towards ending recent factional fighting.
Maher Maqdad said the two factions had decided to create a coordination office to "monitor all incidents between Fatah and Hamas". It is scheduled to meet for the first time on Saturday.