12/22/2023–|Last updated: 12/22/202309:30 PM (Mecca time)
About 5 days after he sent a money transfer to his family in Gaza, Ahmed Al-Masry, a Palestinian residing in the Swedish city of Malmö, was forced to cancel the transfer and bear the cost of cancellation, as a result of his family, which was displaced to a school in Gaza City, being unable to receive it, due to the lack of operating branches in the city. The financial transfer system through which the transfer was sent.
Al-Masry explains the circumstances of his family, who are living in catastrophic conditions in a school that received displaced people after they were forced to leave their homes as a result of being hit by Israeli bombing in the context of the war that Israel has been waging against Gaza since the seventh of last October.
Al-Masry continues, “My family left the house suddenly and without warning, and thus they were unable to carry much in their hands, in addition to the fact that they did not expect the period to last this long.” He explains, “The family was forced to disperse more than once in several displacement areas, and most of them do not carry anything to help them manage.” “The basic necessities of their lives, such as food and drink, and even clothes to protect them from the cold of winter, so it was my responsibility to provide assistance to them, and so far I have only succeeded in a few cases.”
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has deliberately targeted the infrastructure of the financial and banking system in the Gaza Strip, which was represented by targeting bank branches operating in the Strip and destroying dozens of exchange offices and automated teller machines. This greatly limited the ability of expatriate Gazans to help their families who live in tragic conditions in the Strip.
As for the Palestinian Dalia Miqdad, who lives in Canada, she pointed out the great difficulty she faced while trying to send money from Canada to her displaced sisters in the Gaza Strip, as the agencies sending money to Gaza in particular require that there be a first-degree kinship between the sender and the recipient, which is difficult in her case. Because women are unable to move during wartime conditions and they seek to stay with their children, remittances are sent in the names of the husbands, which is rejected by the remittance agencies.
Miqdad says, “My sister is afraid of leaving her children for a long time and standing in line in front of a receipt office in an area very far from the place of her displacement to go and receive a transfer in her name, because the receipt requires personal presence. My sister went once, and she suffered greatly until she received it, and she does not risk going again.” .
Miqdad adds, “My sister tells me that the prices of everything in the Gaza Strip have risen many times what they were before the war due to their scarcity, from agricultural crops to flour and even warm clothes for children, and money is losing its value dramatically as a result.”
Temporary solutions
Abu Jamil, a Palestinian from Gaza who runs a money transfer office in the Turkish city of Istanbul, says that his office is witnessing a significant increase in the number of people wishing to transfer money to the Gaza Strip. Abu Jamil points out that Gazan expatriates find in money transfer offices a refuge to send money to their families in the Strip. Because this type of office relies on a network of money changers in the Gaza Strip and outside it, and is not connected to a strict global financial system, and the possibility of delivery in several areas in the Gaza Strip.
But Abu Jamil explains that they are suffering from their inability to deliver in the areas of Gaza City and the North Governorate, due to the complete destruction of the system operating there.
Abu Jamil points out, “Before the war, our work was related to facilitating commercial operations for Gazan merchants who had commercial relations with Turkish suppliers, and personal transfers were a secondary part of our work. Today, the bulk of our work is personal transfers,” adding, “We have great pressure now, but we cannot.” Meeting everyone, as the northern and Gaza regions are outside the scope of our work, in addition to the fact that we cannot provide the necessary liquidity for all requests within the Strip, in addition to the great risks of the delivery process and carrying cash inside the Strip due to the continuous bombing.”
As for Abdullah Salim, a money changer who runs a small exchange office in Rafah, he spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune Net about the difficulties of delivering money transferred from expatriates to their families in the Gaza Strip. Salim points out great difficulties in verifying the recipient and other difficulties and risks in carrying liquid money in the Gaza Strip.
Saleem explains, “In the past, the situation was easier for us. I work in a small neighborhood in Rafah, and all my work previously was limited to clients from families I know in the neighborhood and small neighborhoods. It is easy for me to verify them because this method of transfer does not depend on a banking system.” Integrated, but rather a set of standards, some of which are linked to proof of personal identity, and some of which are linked to personal knowledge, but with the displacement of most of the residents of the Strip to the areas of the south, especially the city of Rafah, the process has become more complicated.” Saleem adds, “The matter does not depend only on this, but in Under this crazy bombing, who would risk carrying cash?
Abdel Nasser Aziz, a citizen of Gaza residing in the Jordanian capital, Amman, found another way for himself to help his family. In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, he explained that he was able to send money to his family displaced from the northern regions of Rafah by delivering it to his friend in the West Bank, who deposited it in an account. He had it at the Bank of Palestine, and then sent it to his brother, who had an account at the same bank, so that his brother, in turn, could withdraw it from the bank’s ATM in the city of Rafah. Aziz added, “It is really exhausting, but there is no way I can do it. My family will not be able to provide the most basic needs without this.” “They lost their businesses, their money, their homes, everything.”
Aziz points out that he was lucky in that, “I am lucky, because at least I can send money to my mother. My friend here helps me, but it is not that easy for everyone, as many West Bank residents refrain from doing so for fear of being tracked down by the Israeli army and accused of financing terrorism in Gaza.” “.
Billion losses
The Director General of the Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Al-Thawabta, estimated the direct losses that the Gaza Strip has suffered so far at more than $12 billion, without taking into account indirect losses because they are difficult to quantify, as he put it.
However, the head of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights and an expert in economics and finance, Dr. Rami Abdo, had expected, in a previous interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, that the economic losses so far would reach about 20 billion dollars. Abdo explained that this number is based on the extent of the destruction that occurred in the infrastructure and civil and economic facilities in the Strip.
The Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) indicated in a report issued on November 26 that Israel has disrupted the entire Gaza economy “in the foreseeable future.”
The report stated that Israel had destroyed – as of the date of the report’s issuance – 23% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings completely and 27% of them partially.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net tried to contact the Palestine Monetary Authority to obtain official statistics on the losses of the Palestinian banking sector in the Gaza Strip, but the authority’s inquiries indicated that it had not yet issued a comprehensive report due to the impossibility of obtaining complete information due to the war conditions.