The attack marks the first such reported attack on a senior member of Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in more than 10 months of cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement following the Gaza war.

The "assassination of a Fatah official is further proof that Israel wants to ignite a full-scale war in the region," Tawfiq Tirawy, a member of Fatah's central committee, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Ramallah.