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Israel closes down Islamic Movement offices

By KUNA,

Gaza : Israeli police and Shin Bet forces raided the Islamic Movement’s Al-Aqsa institution offices in the northern city of Umm Al-Fahm late last night and shut down the place, according to Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

It its online edition, the newspaper said the operation was carried out in accordance with an “unlawful organization” order issued by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, following information that the institution had ties with the Hamas headquarters in Jerusalem.

According to the newspaper, after searching the place, the forces confiscated numerous documents, a safe and money. The material collected in the raid was turned over to the Shin Bet, where it will be sorted and examined. The police will then decide whether to launch an investigation against the movement.

Simultaneously, some of the movement’s bank accounts were frozen, it said.

A spokesman for the Islamic Movement’s northern branch said in response that “the Israeli institution is using the stick method instead of talking and convincing.” A Shin Bet official was quoted by the newspaper as saying that according to information received by the defense establishment, the Al-Aqsa institute holds joint activities with the Hamas headquarters in Jerusalem. “One of the organizations financing this activity is the ‘Charity Coalition’, which serves as the umbrella organization of extreme Islamic funds worldwide operated by the Hamas movement, and thus the institution was declared an unlawful organization in 2002,” the official said.

Al-Aqsa serves as the movement’s supreme institution in terms of activity related to Al-Aqsa Mosque. On Friday, the movement held a charity event for the mosque under the banner “The Al-Aqsa is in Danger Festival.” This is not the first time security forces seek to stop the movement’s activities. In May 2003, police forces raided the movement’s offices in the northern city and arrested many of its members. In the past, police forces also raided the offices of a newspaper distributed by the movement.