Israeli forces raided Arab banks on Wednesday in Ramallah, on the West Bank, seizing millions of dollars representing hundreds of institutional and personal accounts that Israel said were financing Palestinian terrorism. It was by far the largest such seizure during more than three years of conflict. Witnesses said soldiers covered the banks’ security cameras with black plastic bags and herded all the employees together before ordering workers with keys to open the vaults. Israeli officials defended the operation, which was still under way late Wednesday, as aimed carefully at terrorist financing and in line with President Bush’s call for action against such funds. But Amin Haddad, the head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, called the raid a robbery intended to “shake our banking system.” He rejected Israeli assertions that the accounts were linked to terrorism. Full Story
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