Woman Holds Up Beirut Bank to Withdraw Own Savings

By Staff, Agencies

A woman accompanied by activists and brandishing what she said was a toy pistol broke into a Beirut bank branch and took $13,000 from her trapped savings.

One witness said the intruders doused the inside of the bank with petrol and threatened to set it alight during the incident, which was live-streamed on Facebook.

Sali Hafez said she needed the money to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment. She said she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money and was told she could receive only $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

“I had begged the branch manager before for my money, and I told him my sister was dying, didn’t have much time left,” she said in the interview. “I reached a point where I had nothing else to lose.”

Lebanon’s cash-strapped banks have imposed strict limits on withdrawals of foreign currency since 2019, tying up the savings of millions of people. About three-quarters of the population has slipped into poverty as the tiny Mediterranean country’s economy continues to spiral.

Hafez and activists from a group called Depositors’ Outcry entered the Blom branch and stormed into the manager’s office. They forced bank employees to hand over $12,000 and the equivalent of about $1,000 in Lebanese pounds.

Hafez said she had a total of $20,000 in savings in the bank. She said she had already sold many of her personal belongings and had considered selling her kidney to fund her 23-year-old sister’s cancer treatment.

Some of the activists entered the bank with Hafez, while others staged a protest at the entrance. Hafez eventually left with cash in a plastic bag, witnesses said.

Security forces standing outside arrested several of the activists, including a man carrying what appeared to be a handgun. It was not immediately clear if this was also a toy gun.

The incident occurred weeks after a food delivery driver broke into another bank branch in Beirut and held 10 people hostage for seven hours, demanding tens of thousands of dollars of his trapped savings.

Lebanon has scrambled for more than two years to implement key reforms in its decimated banking sector and economy. It has so far failed to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a recovery program that would unlock billions of dollars in international loans and aid to make the country viable again.

In the meantime, millions of people are struggling to cope with rampant power outages and soaring inflation.