(11 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – 8 July 2025
1. Various of torn money pieces used to repair torn paper notes
2. Man showing worn-out paper notes
3. Various of man repairing torn paper currencies
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ihab Hindi, paper currency repairman:
"In light of the war on the Gaza Strip for more than a year and a half, with the frequent use, the paper began to deteriorate, tear, and become dirty, and pieces of it were missing. We are trying as much as possible to repair it so that it can be used in the market, due to the lack of cash in the Gaza Strip due to the closure of the crossings and the closure of the banks."
5. Various of man repairing paper notes
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Shadi Al-Jamal, resident from Gaza City:
"We always come, we come to him (repairman) two or three times a week, to repair the worn currency so that we can use it in the market, and the sellers and owners of the stalls accept it."
7. Various of people working on repairing torn paper notes
8. Various of people walking in the market
9. Various of vegetable stalls
10. Various of woman paying with coins
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Khitam Hamdan, resident from Gaza City:
"The prices are very high, we are unable to bear the commission, or deal in twenty or fifty shekels, how will we live? Our life is very difficult, in dealing with merchants, 100 shekels is not enough to buy anything, and I wish they would accept it, either they say it is torn, stuck, spoiled or to bring another one. There is no money, no cash, no change."
12. Various of people showing torn paper notes
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jehad al-Sosi, resident from Gaza City:
"They (merchants) object to it even though there is no problem with it. They used to object to the ten shekels and stopped using it, and now they refuse the twenty shekels and the fifty shekels. As for the commission (of produce), it has reached 42%, meaning that you take half the salary and the other half is theirs. Life is unbearable, in all its forms it is unbearable. Here is the fifty shekels, there is no problem with it, no tearing or gluing or anything, and they tell me no. Who do you complain to?"
14. Various of people in the market
15. Various of destroyed ATM of Arab bank
16. Various of destruction of two branches of Bank of Palestine
STORYLINE:
Cash is the lifeblood of the Gaza Strip’s shattered economy, and like all other necessities in this war-torn territory — food, fuel, medicine — it is in extremely short supply.
With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people have become reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses – and commissions on those transactions have soared to about 40%.
"100 shekels is not enough to buy anything, and I wish they (merchants) would accept it, either they say it is torn, stuck, spoiled or to bring another one," said Khitam Hamdan, from Gaza City. "There is no money, no cash, no change."
At a time of surging inflation, high unemployment and dwindling savings, the scarcity of cash has magnified the financial squeeze on families — some of whom have begun to sell their possessions to buy essential goods.
The cash that is available has even lost some of its luster. Palestinians use the Israeli currency, the shekel, for most transactions. Yet with Israel no longer resupplying the territory with newly printed bank notes, merchants are increasingly reluctant to accept frayed bills.
Jehad al-Sosi, from Gaza City, said merchants are now rejecting twenty and fifty shekel notes.
AP video by Mohammad Jahjouh
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