[JURIST] An apparent assassination attempt [PCHR press release] against Palestinian Authority Attorney General Ahmed al-Moghani failed in the West Bank town of Ramallah Tuesday when a bomb placed in his car exploded as he stood several feet away. Al-Moghani was not injured in the blast. It is not yet clear who was responsible for the attack, but Palestinian security forces are investigating the explosion. Reuters has more.

Tension in the Palestinian territories has increased lately as competing Palestinian governments controlled by Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas [BBC backgrounders] in Gaza have struggled for ascendancy. In May, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) [advocacy website] reported that it had received over 2,000 reports of human rights abuses by Palestinian factions in 2007, including illegal detentions and torture. In 2007, Amnesty International [advocacy website] criticized the two feuding Palestinian groups [JURIST report] for causing wide-scale violence involving civilians.