FORCES loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, are preparing for an onslaught against the military wing of the Islamist rival group Hamas in a desperate attempt to sustain his waning power.

“Civil war is inevitable,” a senior Palestinian security official said last week. He predicted a bloody denouement to tensions heightened by a warning from Abbas that he will hold a referendum on proposals for separate Palestinian and Israeli states which the Hamas government refuses to accept.

“Time is running out for Hamas. We’ll choose the right time and place for the military showdown. But after that there will be no more of Hamas’s militias,” said the official as he sipped honey-laced mint tea in his sitting room while watching the antics of hooded militants on his television.

“I read our daily intelligence reports about Hamas and know very well that these people are planning to overthrow our president by force.”

The violence was all too evident 60 miles away at a Tel Aviv hospital where Ahmad “Tareq” Ishnawra, the head of the Palestinian equivalent of MI5, was recovering from an assassination attempt.

Last weekend Ishnawra stepped into the lift at his Gaza office with two aides. “Tareq pressed the fourth-floor button,” said one witness. “That was the last thing he remembered.”

A bomb exploded, killing one aide and injuring the other. Ishnawra’s life was saved by Israeli doctors. He was too weak to provide many details of the attack, but is said to be certain it was a Hamas operation.

Hamas has been wrong-footed by Abbas’s call for a referendum unless it agrees to the principle of a two-state solution, thereby implicitly recognising Israel for the first time. Abbas has given Hamas 10 days to back his proposal or face a vote 30 days later.

The plan follows a joint call by prisoners in Israeli jails from the Fatah movement led by Abbas and from Hamas and Islamic Jihad for a government of national unity. The prisoners have urged a negotiated settlement with Israel if it withdraws from Palestinian territories.

Hamas militias were back on the streets yesterday and officials signalled that they would reject Abbas’s ultimatum.

The security official said a solution may have to be forced on Hamas. He added that there were enough men for the job and that weapons could come from unexpected sources.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, announced last week that his government would allow Abbas’s personal guard to be armed by neighbouring countries. According to Israeli military intelligence officials, these would include Egypt and Jordan.

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