Armed groups in Gaza, including Hamas, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million, French daily Le Monde reported Saturday.
The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank in Gaza © Mena Today
Armed groups in Gaza, including Hamas, last month robbed the Bank of Palestine of some $70 million, French daily Le Monde reported Saturday.
The funds were taken from the vaults of several branches of the bank, it said, citing a Bank of Palestine document sent to "certain international partners" detailing the robberies.
On April 16, staff discovered a hole in the ceiling of the safe deposit room at one of the bank's Gaza branches and found that some $3 million worth of Israeli shekels destined for cash dispensers were missing, Le Monde said.
The next day, armed groups equipped with explosives returned to the site, blew up a cement protection chamber, and took more than $30 million in various currencies from three safes.
Two days later, the biggest Gaza branch was attacked by commandos who said they answered to "Gaza's highest authorities," which the paper said is understood to mean Hamas. They took more than $36 million worth of shekels.
The Bank of Palestine, founded in 1960, is Gaza's leading financial institution.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on his first visit to Syria, called Saturday on the international community to help the country as it moves through a transition following years of civil war and the establishment of new authorities.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
Yemen is edging towards the resumption of a more than decade-old frozen conflict, Yemeni officials, Western diplomats and analysts say, as attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping by Iran-aligned Houthis test the patience of the kingdom and the Yemeni government forces it backs.
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