Dozens of police and intelligence personnel swooped down on Al Aqsa offices of the Islamic Movement in the Lower Galilee city of Um el Fahm Saturday night and seized money, computers and documents that linked the organization with Hamas.
The money was intended for activities in Jerusalem, which were sponsored by the movement's leader, Sheikh Raad Salah. He has accused Israel of building a synagogue under the Temple Mount's Al Aqsa mosque.
Um al Fahm is a large Arab city located several miles east of Hadera, southeast of Haifa, and has increasingly become a hotbed of anti-Israeli incitement.
The Al Aqsa branch of the Movement is suspected of working with Hamas's charity coalition," which is a front for "extremist Muslims throughout the world," Israeli intelligence officials said. Authorities are investigating if Al Asqa is coordinating activities with the outlawed Hamas group Dawa, which helps finance terrorism. Islamic Movement leaders charged that the raid signaled the "bankruptcy" of Israeli institutions.
The Al Aqsa mosque on Friday staged a "festival of the endangered Aqsa" in which Sheikh Salah charged that Israel is desecrating the mosque.
Exactly one year ago, Jerusalem police broke up a meeting of 30 Islamic Jihad and Hamas leaders in Jerusalem and threw stun grenades after the participants refused to leave.