GAZA CITY (AFP) -Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas has condemned a militant attack against an Israeli army post near Gaza in which two soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen were killed.

“This operation is contrary to everything we heard” during a series of national dialogue meetings between rival Palestinian factions aimed at ending a deadly power struggle, Abbas’s office said in a statement.

“We have always warned against the danger of certain groups or factions leaving the national concensus and carrying out operations for which the Palestinian people will always have to pay the price,” it said.