IDF Operation Tracks Hamas Money Trail

The army jeeps cruise down the main street of this southern West Bank village Wednesday, bringing a large contingent of locals to their porches, wary of this IDF raid. Samua at 2 a.m. is quiet, except for the barking dogs awakened by soldiers kicking in doors and prying open barred windows.

Lt.-Col. Didi, commander of the Lavi Battalion stationed outside the nearby settlement of Otniel in the southern Hebron Hills, leads his men as they surround their first target ...

Since Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped just outside the Gaza Strip on June 25, the IDF has been targeting Hamas charities as well as the organization's military wing. Dozens of night-time raids have been carried out on Dawa offices in the West Bank in search of documents linking Hamas fundraising, allegedly for humanitarian ends, with financing the suicide and Kassam rocket attacks carried out by the organization.

The raids, Didi said, were also used to search for evidence to be used in formulating indictments against the 60 Hamas ministers and lawmakers arrested last week.

As the soldiers leave the school, they spot four Palestinians hiding in a nearby hut and order them to stand facing a concrete wall outside.

An officer begins drilling 19-year-old named Ahmed regarding the location of the Dawa offices in Samua. The visibly frightened man says he works in a vegetable store and was walking home with friends after watching the France-Germany World Cup match when he saw the soldiers and decided to hide in a nearby hut.

After some coaxing, Ahmed points to a tall green-lit building. "That is the Dawa office," he says.

The troops quickly take up positions as the company commander and a few soldiers begin searching the building to ensure that Ahmed hadn't sent them into a trap. After a quick search, the soldiers begin kicking in doors and find offices filled with Hamas charity documents and computers.