August 29, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 15, 1428

RAMALLAH, Aug 28: The Palestinian Authority will close 103 charities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a minister in President Mahmoud Abbas’s government said on Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to weaken Hamas Islamists.

“The government decided to close down 103 charities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because they have violated the law,” said Mahmoud al-Habbash, Minister of Social Affairs in a government appointed by Abbas after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip.

Habbash said the move did not target any single group. He said some charities were being used as “cover-ups for activities that contravene the law”.

Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led government in June and appointed a Western-backed cabinet in the occupied West Bank headed by Salam Fayyad.—Reuters