NABLUS, West Bank // Israeli troops raided the city hall of the West Bank town of Nablus, causing damage and seizing computers, Palestinian officials said. The troops also raided six mosques and confiscated three buses from an Islamic school in town, the officials said. An Israeli military spokesman said he was checking the reports of the raid. Nablus is governed by president Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, but the Israeli army mounts frequent raids into the city in what the military describes as attempts to prevent attacks by militants.
Acting Nablus mayor, Hafez Shahin, said: "The municipality is a service institution. I see no reason to raid the place. I see it as an attack on the Palestinian Authority." Nablus stores and businesses announced a general strike in protest against the raid. Israel has stepped up a campaign against organisations in the occupied West Bank, which it says are linked to Hamas, the group that seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas's Fatah faction a year ago and opposes his talks with the Jewish state.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces raided a popular shopping mall in Nablus, ordering its closure for two years over its owner's alleged links to Hamas. Palestinian officials also reported on Wednesday that Israel has opened a Gaza cargo crossing for business despite mortar fire from inside Gaza a day earlier. The Palestinian Interior Ministry says the Sufa cargo crossing opened on Wednesday morning with Israeli military officials also confirming the Sufa would be operating under normal conditions. Under a three-week-old truce, Israel is to expand the flow of goods into Gaza, which has been largely cut off from the world since the violent Hamas takeover last year. However, Israel repeatedly closed Gaza's crossings in response to rocket fire from Gaza. On Tuesday, Gaza militants fired three mortar shells. An Egyptian official called Israel's defence minister to request that the borders remain open. *Agencies
