A woman in Lebanon armed with what she claimed was a toy gun was joined by activists when she withdrew $13,000 of her trapped savings from a bank on Wednesday.
Sali Hafez told Al Jadeed she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money to fund her sister’s cancer treatment but was told she could only be given $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez added that she had already sold many of her personal belongings and even considered selling her kidney prior to the raid on the BLOM Bank branch, according to the Associated Press.
“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.”
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Hafez, joined by activists from a group called Depositors’ Outcry, were given $12,000 and $1,000 in Lebanese pounds from the employees of the bank, though Hafez claims she had $20,000 in her savings.
A bank customer present at the scene, Nadine Nakhal, said the intruders “doused gasoline everywhere inside, and took out a lighter and threatened to light it.” She also said Hafez threatened to shoot the manager.
Hafez “did not break into the bank to kill anyone or set the place on fire,” she said, adding that she went to the bank “to get my rights.”
Many commercial banks in Lebanon froze the currency of their clients after the country experienced a financial crisis in 2019. While the banks claim that they will make exceptions in some cases, such as for hospital care, depositors state that such exceptions are rarely made.
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In August, an armed man named Bassam al Sheikh Hussein held hostages at the Federal Bank of Lebanon while demanding the bank give him his deposits of up to $200,000. The man’s brother and a legal group claim that a Lebanese judge ordered his release from detention without charge, according to Reuters.
