Palestinian armed groups, including one that claims to belong to Hamas, stole 66 million euros from the safes of several banks in April. The Israeli army also seized funds, reports Le Monde, quoted by News.ro.
On the morning of April 16, employees of the main branch of the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City noticed that a hole had been made in the ceiling of the vault. An unidentified armed group had broken into the bank a few hours earlier, right in the heart of the Rimal district, which before the war was the richest in the enclave. The criminals got their hands on cash machines containing the equivalent of 2.8 million euros in Israeli shekels. After unsuccessfully trying to open the safes, they disappeared into the ruins of the city, which is besieged by the Israeli army and largely depopulated.
The details of the robbery are described in a document dated April 20, which the Bank of Palestine sent to some of its international partners and which Le Monde obtained.
Panic set in among the managers of this private financial institution, the largest in the Palestinian territories, founded in Gaza in the 1960s and still run by a large family from the enclave, the Shawa family.
After consulting with the Palestinian Authority and the Monetary Authority, the regulator of the Palestinian banking sector, its managers took drastic measures to avoid further losses. A few hours after the robbery, the workers buried the safes in Rimal’s building, which still contained large reserves of money, in cement.
The next day, armed groups armed with explosives returned to the scene of operations, blew up a cement security chamber and took over $30 million in various currencies from three safes.
Two days later, the largest branch in Gaza was attacked by commandos who said they were answering to “the highest authorities in Gaza”, which the newspaper said was understood to mean Hamas.
They took shekels worth over 36 million dollars.
The Bank of Palestine, founded in 1960, is the main financial institution in Gaza.
The Palestinian Monetary Authority, an independent body that oversees the financial system in the Palestinian territories, said when contacted by AFP that it planned to issue a statement on the matter later on Saturday.
Publisher: MB
Tags: Spectacular robberies Gaza Armed groups blew bank security cameras stole money safes
