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 The alleged Hamas plot was hatched during the July-August war in
Gaza. Its disclosure comes as ties fray between Israel and
U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the
West Bank, over a contested Jerusalem shrine.
A statement by Israel's domestic intelligence service Shin Bet
identified three of the detainees as Hamas members and, citing their
confessions under interrogation, said they had hoped killing
Lieberman "would relay a message to the State of Israel that would
bring about an end to the Gaza war".
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip although it is formally under
Abbas' rule, neither confirmed nor denied the allegations.
"We have no information about this issue. However, we stress that
leaders of the Occupation (Israel) who are responsible for the
killing of children and women and for defiling the sacred sites are
legitimate targets for the resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu
Zuhri said.
 The four Palestinians live near Nokdim settlement, where Lieberman
has a home. They had carried out surveillance on the far-right
diplomat's convoy and tried to obtain a rocket-propelled grenade to
attack it, the Shin Bet said.
The Shin Bet described the alleged plot as a sign that Islamist
Hamas, which Abbas's forces had suppressed in the West Bank after a
2007 Palestinian civil war, were stepping up their activities in the
territory and adjoining East Jerusalem.
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Hamas militants abducted and killed three Israeli youths in the West
Bank in June, triggering the murder by Jews of a Palestinian
teenager from Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, Israel launched a
50-day offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip with the stated aim
of stopping rocket fire out of the enclave.
Israeli access to Jerusalem's most sacred compound, which houses
Islam's third-holiest mosque and where Biblical Jewish Temples once
stood, has further inflamed Palestinians, leading to lethal attacks
on Jews in city streets and in a synagogue.
Israel's talks with Abbas on founding a Palestinian state in the
West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem collapsed in April and it has
accused him of inciting violence since. This is disputed, however,
by security officials, who credit Abbas's forces with curbing many
West Bank threats.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; Writing by Dan
Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie and Crispian Balmer)
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