Gunmen stormed an office of a Palestinian news service on Tuesday, beating up one reporter and vandalizing equipment, witnesses and the news agency said.

Witnesses said unidentified gunmen smashed a computer and destroyed other equipment at the official WAFA news agency office in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis.

The agency is controlled by Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

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The attack in Gaza coincided with rising tension between Abbas' Fatah movement and Hamas over the killing last week of a senior intelligence official loyal to the chairman, a shooting that has further complicated efforts to form a unity government.

The agency said one reporter was attacked and taken to hospital for treatment.

While there was no claim of responsibility, the gunmen accused WAFA of biased media coverage. WAFA has not blamed the attack on any faction.

Last June, gunmen stormed an office of Palestine TV in Gaza, accusing the network, which is also controlled by Abbas, of favoring Fatah.

Fatah had blamed the incident on Hamas militants, a charge Hamas denied.

Seeking to resolve their differences and lift Western sanctions, the moderate Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas announced plans to form a unity government last week.

But Abbas since froze talks, after accusing Hamas of backtracking on a deal he says includes accepting interim peace accords with Israel.

The United States also said the terms of the unity government did not go far enough in recognizing Israel and renouncing violence.

Hamas has said talks were only on hold while Abbas attended United Nations meetings in New York, insisting it would abide by the deals if they were in the "interest of the Palestinian people."

Further jeopardizing the planned unity government, Fatah officials said Abbas would not agree to form the coalition until Hamas arrested those behind the killing of Jad Tayeh, a senior official in the General Intelligence service in Gaza last week.

Four of his bodyguards were also killed in the drive-by shooting.

Hamas said in a statement on Tuesday that it was not responsible for the killings and said its patience could run out if accusations of the group's involvement continued.