Israel has arrested four Palestinians suspected of planning to kill Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with an anti-tank rocket while he drove to his Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials say.

The alleged Hamas plot was hatched during the July-August war in the Gaza Strip. 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."