Hamas flag on Temple Mount
Hamas flag on Temple MountFlash 90

Police Commissioner Yohanan Daninoon Thursday evening signed an order to have two Hamas-linked institutions in Jerusalem be closed, as part of a crackdown after Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teens last Thursday.

Jerusalem police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) forces closed the two institutions on Danino's orders.

One of the two is the "Namaa Association for Social Creativity," whose offices in the Hamza Mosque in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa are to be closed for half a year.

The other Hamas institution is the "Sur Bahar Charity Council," which has been active in a clubhouse in Sur Baher, a Jerusalem neighborhood located to the south of East Talpiyot in the southeast of the capital. The organization is to be closed for a year.

The clamping down on Hamas institutions is part of a wider effort against Hamas's terror infrastructure, and comes the same Thursday that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon banned a front organization for Hamas, the Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) group.

Similarly, security forces on Tuesday night raided the "Al-Aqsa Radio Station" offices of the Hamas movement, both in Ramallah, which is in Samaria, and in the Judean city of Hevron.

Also in the crackdown, the Al-Ayyam newspaper group announced last Thursday it will stop printing and distributing Hamas newspapers FalastinAl-Resala and Al-Istiqlal, saying the decision was made after an alleged phone call from the IDF threatening to close the newspaper group if it did not stop publishing the papers.

The IDF reportedly raided Al-Ayyam's offices last month as well and issued similar orders to stop printing the terrorist organization's papers.