The Palestinian Monetary Authority announced today, Monday, that the banking apparatus is scheduled to gradually resume work in the Gaza Strip, starting tomorrow morning, Tuesday.
This comes after reaching the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the middle of this month.
The Palestinian Monetary Authority stated in a statement that the restart of banks will take place in stages. The first stage includes operation from three to four branches in the areas of Deir Al -Balah and Al -Nasayrat (in the central Gaza Strip).
The statement quoted the Governor of the Monetary Authority, Yahya Al -Shanar, as saying that “the monetary authority works with banks to increase the number of branches that will be opened to provide services to the public to include other areas in the north and south of the sector.”
The statement added that the increase in the number of branches operating “is subject to the availability of communication, electricity and employees lines and the availability of security.”
Electronic payment
Al -Shannar urged the population in the Gaza Strip to “take advantage of the electronic payment services provided by the Monetary Authority” until a paper currency was entered.
Last week, the Palestinian Monetary Authority had issued a statement calling on banks that are active in the Gaza Strip to take measures to resume the provision of banking services, including the restart of a number of bank branches and mechanical exchanges that were not destroyed.
The Monetary Authority at the time held a meeting with the managers of banks operating in Palestine, which has branches in the Gaza Strip, to prepare the remaining branches to receive customers, provide basic services, and encourage the use of electronic payment services.
The banking sector in the Gaza Strip suffers from a scarcity of cash liquidity that reaches the stage of almost complete absence, in addition to the high size of the damaged monetary bloc, which prompted citizens to resort to electronic payment tools issued by the Monetary Authority.
For months, most banks in the Gaza Strip were not able to meet the requests of their customers to withdraw part of their deposits (in cash), except with low numbers due to the lack of cash and the damage of a large part of the banknotes.
The Gaza Strip’s economy faces the battle of reconstruction during the coming period, amid expectations that Gaza will need more than two decades to reach the registered local product numbers until the eve of the war on the Strip.
