MIDDLE EAST: Israeli troops and security officials raided Palestinian banks in Ramallah yesterday, seizing from the vaults of four branches large sums of money which they said was intended to fund terrorism, and promising to redistribute it to finance Palestinian humanitarian needs.
The unprecedented raids, which were condemned by the Palestinian Authority, came a day after Palestinian officials confirmed that the Lebanon-based Hizbullah had helped fund two suicide bombings in Jerusalem in the past month and after the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which carried out those two attacks, acknowledged that it has received payments of up to $50,000 for orchestrating bombings. The army arrested several computer personnel from the banks overnight, and then came with them yesterday to the branches of the Arab Bank, the Cairo Amman Bank and the International Palestine Bank.
Troops attempted to clamp a curfew on downtown Ramallah, close to the battered compound of PA President Yasser Arafat, but clashes with local Palestinians continued for much of the day, with Palestinian sources reporting 19 people injured, three of them critically.
Inside the branches, the Israelis shut down security systems and in one case reportedly confined bank employees to back rooms, while they examined hundreds of bank accounts allegedly belonging to, or used by, members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and those suspected of being used to receive funds from overseas, including from Hizbullah and from Iran and Syria.
Israeli sources added that it was also hoped the raids would turn up evidence of Mr Arafat's direct involvement in funding suicide bombings and other attacks. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are affiliated with his Fatah faction of the PLO. Israeli officials said that millions of dollars were "confiscated" for redistribution.