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WORLD NEWS Thursday 15 sepTember 2022

Woman with toy gun grabs trapped savings from

Beirut bank

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press
BEIRUT (AP) — A woman
accompanied by activists
and brandishing what she
said was a toy pistol broke
into a Beirut bank branch
on Wednesday, taking
$13,000 from her trapped
savings.
Sali Hafez told the local Al-
Jadeed TV that she need-
ed the money to fund her
sister’s cancer treatment.
She said she had repeat-
edly visited the bank to
ask for her money and was
told she could only receive
$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 Lebanese Sali Hafez, center, accompanied by activists looks at her phone after breaking into a
BLOM Bank branch brandishing what she later said was a toy pistol and taking $13,000 from her
sister was dying, didn’t have trapped savings accopunt, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.
much time left,” she said in Associated Press
the interview. “I reached a
point where I had nothing Hafez said in a live- Meanwhile, Alaa Khorchid “These people worked for
else to lose.” streamed video she posted who heads the Deposi- decades, but not for the
Lebanon’s cash-strapped on her Facebook account tors’ Outcry protest group rulers to build palaces while
banks have imposed strict that she did not intend to said that a man commu- they can’t afford a bottle
limits on withdrawals of for- do harm. “I did not break nicating and coordinating of medicine.”
eign currency since 2019, into the bank to kill anyone with the group broke into On Wednesday night, ac-
tying up the savings of or set the place on fire,” a bank in the mountain- tivists closed a major road in
millions of people. About she said. “I am here to get ous town of Aley to retrieve Beirut outside a police bar-
three-quarters of the popu- my rights.” his trapped savings. Local racks holding two activists
lation has slipped into pov- Hafez was celebrated as media reported that the who stormed the bank ear-
erty as the tiny Mediterra- a hero across social me- man entered the Bank- lier in the day with Hafez.
nean country’s economy dia in Lebanon, as many Med branch alone with a The protesters demanded
continues to spiral. in the small crisis-hit coun- shotgun without any shells the immediate release of
Hafez and activists from a try struggle to make ends loaded, but was unable to the two men.
group called Depositors’ meet and retrieve their sav- retrieve his savings before Lebanon has scrambled
Outcry entered the BLOM ings. She encouraged oth- he was apprehended. for over two years to im-
Bank branch and stormed ers to take similar action to Both incidents occurred plement key reforms in its
into the manager’s office. reclaim their savings. weeks after a food delivery decimated banking sector
They forced bank employ- Some of the activists en- driver broke into another and economy. It has so far
ees to hand over $12,000 tered the bank with Hafez, bank branch in Beirut and failed to reach an agree-
and the equivalent of while others staged a pro- held 10 people hostage for ment with the International
about $1,000 in Lebanese test at the entrance. Hafez seven hours, demanding Monetary Fund on a recov-
pounds. eventually left with cash tens of thousands of dollars ery program that would
Hafez said she had a to- in a plastic bag, witnesses in his trapped savings. Most unlock billions of dollars in
tal of $20,000 in savings said. hailed him as a hero. international loan and aid
trapped in that bank. She Security forces standing “There is no government, to make the country viable
said she had already sold outside arrested several of no economic recovery again. Its government has
many of her personal be- the activists, including a plan, and little reserves struggled to function in a
longings and had consid- man carrying what looked left,” Khorchid told the AP, caretaker capacity since
ered selling her kidney to like a handgun. It was not adding that people have May, and its recently elect-
fund her 23 year-old sister’s immediately clear if this no choice but to “take mat- ed Parliament remains
cancer treatment. was also a toy gun. ters into their own hands”. deeply divided.q
Nadine Nakhal, a bank
customer, said the intruders LIKE US ON
“doused gasoline every-
where inside, and took out
a lighter and threatened to
light it.” She said the wom-
an with the pistol threat-
ened to shoot the manag-
er if she did not receive her
money. Facebook.com/arubatoday/