The organizations were issued with orders closing them down for one year. Army Radio reports that the IDF has received intelligence information indicating that the charity activities were only a cover for the streaming of monies to terrorists and families of suicide bombers.



"Instead of the money going to real charitable purposes and to needy people," said a high-ranking officer leading the mission, "it is used for terrorist purposes, suicide bombers and their families."



Hundreds of documents, dozens of computers and technical equipment were confiscated and are now being studied and analyzed to find connections between the institutions and the Hamas terror activity.



Matthew A. Levitt, a former FBI counterterrorism intelligence analyst and a senior fellow in terrorism studies at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has written widely on U.S. findings linking Hamas' charitable activities with its terrorist intentions.



In addition, IDF forces arrested nine wanted terrorists in various areas throughout Judea and Samaria overnight. Four Hamas terrorists were arrested in Hevron and Kalkilye, and two Islamic Jihad members were taken in Bethlehem. Another terrorist was apprehended south of Shechem when he arrived at a checkpoint with 14 knives in his possession.



In other security news:

Al-Aksa Brigade terrorists, of Fatah, shot at an Israeli car near Ofrah last night. The driver was not wounded, but the windshield was pierced by two bullets... An IDF soldier was lightly hurt by Arab-hurled rocks northwest of Ramallah... An armed terrorist was shot and killed by IDF forces in northern Gaza; another terrorist may also have been killed...