The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Nablus

Israeli troops on Monday shut down a Hamas-linked charity in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in a dawn operation, according to Palestinian security officials and witnesses.

The soldiers searched the offices of the The Al-Tadamon (Solidarity) association, confiscating documents and computers before sealing the building.

They then placed a sign on the door saying "the offices of the al-Tadamon association have been closed because they were part of terrorist infrastructure," witnesses said.

The military would not immediately comment.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the army has decided to intensify its campaign against charities and other civil associations linked to the Islamist movement which seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Earlier this year Israeli troops raided and shut down several warehouses and offices of the Islamic Charity Movement and the Islamic Youth Association in the southern West Bank town of Hebron.

The army said both were being used to funnel funds to Hamas's military wing.

Israel has long feared a repeat of the Gaza takeover in the occupied West Bank, with senior officials expressing concern that Hamas could again route security forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Israel and the West have blacklisted the Islamist movement as a terrorist organisation, although Israel last month agreed to an Egyptian-brokered truce in and around Gaza aimed at halting near-daily Palestinian rocket attacks.