Abbas government closes 103 Palestinian charities

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - 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 told Reuters that some of the 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.

Fayyad has been trying to reduce the influence of Hamas and its welfare agencies by building a government-run social services system using Western and Arab funds.

The bank accounts of al-Salah Association, one of the largest Islamic charities in the Gaza Strip, were frozen earlier this month by Palestinian banks after the U.S. government designated it a "key support node for Hamas".

Hamas defeated Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election in 2006, and economic sanctions have been a centrepiece of an international campaign imposed to topple the Islamist group, which refuses to recognise Israel.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision to close the charities is part of an attempt by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to "uproot the Hamas movement" and that it would only cause hardship among Palestinians.

About 2,400 charities operate in the Palestinian territories, Habbash said.