Israeli troops raided the city hall of the West Bank town of Nablus on Wednesday, seizing computers and causing damage, Palestinian officials said. The troops also raided six mosques and confiscated three buses from an Islamic school in town, the officials said. A Muslim religious school in the nearby village of Qabalan, is also closed by the troops, a security sources said. The troops forced their way into the Hamas-controlled mayor's office in Nablus early Wednesday to carry out searches, security sources and witnesses said. The raid, in which soldiers used explosives to blow open the main door to the finance department before breaking into individual offices, was the latest in a series of actions this week against Hamas interests in the West Bank. The soldiers confiscated a number of computers and numerous documents, the sources said. Nablus Mayor Adli Yaaish and his deputy, Mahdi Al-Hanbali, have been in Israeli custody for more than a year, but acting mayor Hafez Shahin slammed the raid. Nablus stores and businesses announced a general strike in protest against the raid. Nablus is governed by President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, but the Israeli army mounts frequent raids into the city in what the military describes as efforts to prevent attacks by militants. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the incursions were “extremely disruptive” and undermined US-backed security efforts by the Palestinian Authority to establish law and order in areas under its control in the West Bank. Acting Nablus mayor, Hafez Shahin, said: “The municipality is a service institution. I see no reason to raid the place. I see it as an attack on the Palestinian Authority.” “This is an aggression against the Palestinian Authority and all the citizens of Nablus because the mayor's office is in an official building that belongs to the ministry of local governments, and it is run by an elected city council.” He said the offices of both the mayor and the deputy mayor had been searched. This was the third straight day of Israeli action against Hamas interests in the West Bank. On Tuesday, the army ordered the closure of a shopping mall in Nablus, saying the company that runs it is linked to Hamas.
