Palestinian gunmen attacked and destroyed the car of a close confidant of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas onSunday, although the identity and motive of the attackers was not immediately clear.
Local eyewitnesses said gunmen shot at the car of Nablus governor Jamal al-Mouhsen when he travelled in the Balata refugee camp in the city. He was not hurt in the attack, although one of his bodyguards was slightly wounded.
An elite Palestinian force later extricated Mouhsen and his entourage from a house in which they sought refuge in the Balata camp, but the attackers later set about the governor's car and torched it.
A senior security official who declined to be named said Mouhsen, a top figure in Abbas' secular Fatah faction which holds sway in the occupied West Bank, was attacked by gunmen who escaped from a Palestinian jail.
Last year about 200 gunmen agreed to remain in custody in Palestinian jails as part of an amnesty agreement with Israel .In exchange for handing in weapons and a cooling-off period behind bars, Israel promised not to pursue and kill them.