Last update - 00:00 08/09/2006
Police raid office of Galilee group said used as Hamas front
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Security forces on Friday closed the offices of an Israeli Arab prisoner advocacy group that the authorities said was a front for funneling money to Hamas.
In a pre-dawn raid, police and the Shin Bet security service confiscated hundreds of documents at the headquarters of the Prisoners Association in the Galilee town of Majdal Krum and throughout their West Bank branches.
Security officials said the group was involved in transferring Hamas funds to Palestinian prisoners convicted of security offenses.
The group's chairman, Munir Mansour, served time in Israeli prisons after he was convicted of security offenses, but was released in a prisoner exchange in 1985.
His organization has recently called on the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.