An Israeli security official on Sunday warned the cabinet that Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is planning to carry out a mega-terror attack against Israel.

A deputy chief of Israel security agency, Shin Bet, made the warning while speaking to cabinet ministers, said local daily Yedioth Ahronoth on its website.

The Hamas headquarters in Damascus has ordered its members in the West Bank to carry out a mass casualty attack in Israel, the security official named only "Y" was quoted as saying.

According to him, the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip is experiencing "deep strategic complications", due to the movement's frustrations in gaining legitimacy in the international arena and controlling internal affairs after its violent takeover of Gaza in June.

This situation increases the risk that Hamas will change its policy on suicide attacks in Gaza, the West Bank and abroad, said the official.

Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006, took over the Gaza Strip by force in June this year after defeated its rival Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Following the takeover, President Abbas severed all contacts with Hamas and replaced the Hamas-led government by a new one actually functioning in the West Bank.

As a result, the geographically-divided Palestinian territories have been politically split into two parts, with Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip and Fatah holding the West Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2007)