Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 29 August 2003 — An Israeli warplane killed a Hamas activist yesterday with a missile strike on a donkey cart he was riding in the Gaza Strip. Three by-standers were injured. They identified the man as Hamdi Kalakh, an operative in the Izz Al-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

The air strike came hours after Hamas activists fired a rocket into the coastal city of Ashkelon. That attack caused no casualties or damage, but Israeli officials said it may have crossed a “red line” threshold for escalating military action against militants who last week called off a truce crucial to a US-backed peace plan. Israeli troops earlier entered a Palestinian-controlled area of the Gaza Strip in response to the rocket attack and cleared some bushes and leveled land.

The latest bout of violence came as the Palestinian Authority froze 39 bank accounts of nine Islamic charities in an apparent clampdown on hard-liners sought by the United States.

The order to shut down the bank accounts was issued by the Palestinian Monetary Authority on Sunday, and came to light yesterday, when hundreds of Palestinians relying on welfare payments from charities tried to pick up their monthly support checks at banks in Gaza City. They were told by banks they would not receive the money because the accounts have been frozen.

The Palestinian Monetary Authority confirmed the order.

Dore Gold, an Israeli government spokesman, welcomed the freezing of funds. “There have been charities that Israel has long suspected of being front organizations for Hamas,” he said. “Anything that serves this need (of stopping the flow of money) is a positive development.”

According to a copy of the order, the nine charities are: Al-Jamiya Al-Islamiya, the Islamic Young Women’s Association, As-Salah Association, the Social Care Committee, the Palestinian Student Friends Association, the Islamic Charity for Zakat, Al-Mujamma Al-Islami, Al-Nour Charity Association and Al-Aqsa Charity Association. The banks were told no money can be withdrawn from the charities’ accounts without authorization of the attorney general.

Palestinian officials confirmed that the Palestinian prime minister believes two of the charities — Al-Jamiya Al-Islamiya and As-Salah — are fronts for Hamas.

US President George W. Bush, responding to the Aug. 19 bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 21 people, announced last week that the United States is freezing the funds of six senior Hamas figures in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon, as well as of five European-based charities that he accused of funding Hamas. Those five charities are different from the nine operating in the Gaza Strip.

Amir Abu Omarein, director of Al-Mujamma Al-Islami, said the freezing of funds will hurt the poorest among the Palestinians. He said his charity, set up in the 1970s by Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, supports about 3,000 people, including the families of Palestinian prisoners, those who were wounded in fighting with Israel and orphans.