By Awad Rajoob and Mohammad Sio
RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) - The Palestinian Monetary Authority, which functions as the central bank, instructed financial institutions operating in the Gaza Strip to begin offering banking and financial services starting Thursday “in accordance with their technical and operational readiness,” it said Wednesday.
It said the reopening of bank branches will take place “gradually and in stages,” with a limited number operating in the first phase based on readiness. Additional branches will reopen later under rehabilitation plans.
The agency urged residents to continue using available electronic payment methods, including debit cards, digital wallets and mobile banking apps, because they “provide convenience, safety, and speed while helping avoid overcrowding at bank branches.”
The move follows the start of the first phase of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel on Oct. 10.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has destroyed most bank headquarters and branches, many of which were also looted, leaving residents to rely on damaged paper currency or digital transfers through mobile apps.
According to the agency’s data published last January, only three ATMs were operational in Gaza out of 97 that existed before the war, after widespread destruction of branches and machines caused by Israeli airstrikes.
Raja Khalidi, director general of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), said Gaza’s financial and banking sector is in a state of “near-total collapse after two years of war.”
“What the banking sector needs now is an urgent financial relief plan over the coming months,” Khalidi wrote Wednesday on the institute’s website. The plan, he said, should include “reopening bank branches, replacing damaged banknotes, and urgently installing ATMs in residential and shelter areas.”
The agency said it was working to restore banking services in Gaza “as soon as possible,” following the implementation of the ceasefire.
The Palestinian Monetary Authority announced Friday the reopening of several bank branches in Gaza under an approved technical and operational schedule.
Reopening this week includes the Arab Bank (Rimal branch), Quds Bank and the Bank of Palestine (Rimal–Gaza, Nuseirat, Deir al-Balah, and Gaza branches).
It said the Housing Bank and Cairo Amman Bank will remain temporarily closed until technical and administrative arrangements are completed.
During this phase, the agency said that liquidity will be made available in all major currencies -- the Israeli shekel, Jordanian dinar and the US dollar -- with full access to standard banking services and transactions to help gradually restore economic activity and meet the needs of citizens and institutions alike.
Gaza’s economy faces a long recovery, with economists estimating it could take more than two decades to regain prewar levels of output.
US President Donald Trump announced last week that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a plan he laid out on Sept. 29 to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, release all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip. Phase one of the deal came into force last Friday.
Under the deal, Hamas released 20 living Israeli hostages and handed over the remains of 10 captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Phase two of the plan calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza, without Hamas’ participation, the formation of a multinational force and the disarmament of Hamas.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.