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Israel Shuts Down Hamas-linked Facilities
 (AP) - Israeli troops in jeeps swooped
down on the West Bank town of Nablus early Monday, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity, witnesses said. Computers, documents, cash
and furniture were seized, the witnesses said. The Israeli military had
no immediate comment on the Palestinian reports. But the raid appears
to have been part of an intensified crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank
by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The violently
Islamist Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas' forces a
year ago, and neither Israel nor Abbas want that takeover reprised in
the West Bank.
Three weeks ago, Israel and Palestinian militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza
agreed to a truce. Although the cease-fire is limited to Gaza,
confrontations between Israel and Hamas in the West Bank have already
provoked Gaza militants to violate the agreement.
"We consider the Israeli decision to shut down charities that take care
of families of martyrs, orphans and poor people as a moral crime,"
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza. "It's an inhumane act
against poor sectors in the Palestinian society." He made no mention of
the truce.
In recent months, Israeli troops and Abbas' security forces have gone
after West Bank charities, moneychangers, women's cooperatives, media
outlets and schools with suspected ties to the militants.
Around 1 a.m. Monday, dozens of military jeeps, two bulldozers and two
trucks entered Nablus and headed for the facilities of the Solidarity
charity, delivering an order to shut the facility for three years,
witnesses said.
The chairman of the charity is Nablus Mayor Adli Yaish of Hamas. He has
been in an Israeli jail since the military rounded up Hamas politicians
after the June 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-affiliated
militants in Gaza.
The troops shut down Solidarity's headquarters, as well as an elementary school for 160 girls and a sports club.
"The Israelis have confiscated all computers, documents, televisions
and even mobile phones, from the school," said principal Fidda Draikh.
"Now we need to look for an alternative place to educate these girls.
We cannot leave them without a school."
The medical center that was shuttered bears the same name as the
charity but is run by a different charitable organization that was
controlled by Hamas until its top administration was replaced last year
by Abbas' government, said its director, Dr. Hafez al-Sadr.
Sadr said office equipment was smashed and computers, documents and
about $6,000 in Israeli and Jordanian currency was seized. He said the
center is not connected to Hamas.
Troops also raided Nablus offices of the Palestinian Authority's
ministry of religious affairs. Israel is trying to negotiate a peace
deal with the Palestinian Authority and it was not clear why the
ministry was targeted.
Sheik Hassan Hilali, a ministry official, said the Israelis "have
nothing to look for here. They entered the wrong place ... It's a bad
sign of how they perceive peace."
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at a border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Monday, the Israeli army said.
No one was hurt in the attack on the Karni cargo crossing, the military said.
Under the June 19 cease-fire deal, Israel pledged to reopen Gaza's
border crossings to allow key supplies into the territory. But it has
repeatedly closed the passages since the truce went into effect in
response to continued rocket and mortar fire. There was no word on how
Israel would respond to Monday's mortar attack.
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