BEKAA VALLEY, Lebanon: On the run from authorities after forcing a bank to release her family savings at gunpoint to treat her cancer-stricken sister, 28-year-old Lebanese interior designer Sali Hafiz insists she is not the criminal.
“We are in the country of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you,” she said, standing on a dirt track somewhere in Lebanon’s rugged eastern Bekaa valley where she has since been in hiding.
Hafiz held up a Beirut branch of BLOM Bank last week, taking by force some $13,000 in savings in her sister’s account frozen by capital controls that were imposed overnight by commercial banks in 2019 but never made legal via legislation.
Dramatic footage of the incident, in which she cocks what later turned out to be a toy gun and stands atop a desk bossing around employees who hand her wads of cash, turned her into an instant folk hero in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are locked out of their savings.
A growing number are taking matters into their own hands, exasperated by a three-year financial implosion that authorities have left to fester — leading the World Bank to describe it as “orchestrated by the country’s elite.”
Hafiz was the first of at least seven savers who held up banks last week, prompting banks to shut their doors citing security concerns, and call for security support from the government.
George Hajj of the bank employees syndicate said the holdups were misguiding anger that should be directed at the Lebanese state, which was most to blame for the crisis, and noted some 6,000 bank employees had lost their jobs since it began.
Authorities have condemned the holdups and say they are preparing a security plan for banks.
But depositors argue that bank owners and shareholders have enriched themselves by getting high interest payments for lending the government depositors’ money and are prioritising the banks over people rather than enacting an IMF rescue plan.
The government says it is working hard to implement IMF reforms and aims to secure a $3 billion bailout this year.
The series of raids have been met with widespread support, including from crowds that gather outside the banks when they hear a holdup is taking place to cheer them on.
“Maybe they saw me as a hero because I was the first woman who does this in a patriarchal society where a woman’s voice is not supposed to be heard,” Hafiz said, adding she had not intended to harm anyone but was tired of government inaction.
“They are all in cahoots to steal from us and leave us to go hungry and die slowly,” she said.
When her sister began losing hope she would be able to afford costly treatment to help regain mobility and speech impaired by brain cancer, and the bank declined to provide the savings, Hafiz said she decided to act.
BLOM Bank said in a statement that the branch had been cooperative with her request for funds but asked for documentation as they do for all customers requesting humanitarian exceptions to the informal controls.
Hafiz then returned two days later with a toy gun she had seen her nephews playing with, and a small amount of fuel that she mixed with water and spilled on to an employee.
Before her raid, she watched popular Egyptian black comedy Irhab w Kabab — or “Terrorist and Kabab” — in which a man frustrated with government corruption holds up a state building and demands kebabs for the hostages due to the high price of meat.
She managed to get $13,000 of a total $20,000 — enough to cover travel expenses for her sister and about a month of treatment — and made sure to sign a receipt so that she would not be accused of theft.
To aid her escape, Hafiz posted on Facebook that she was already at the airport and on her way to Istanbul. She ran home and disguised herself in a robe and headscarf and placed a bundle of clothes on her belly to make herself appear pregnant.
A police officer who knocked on her door “must have been scared I would give birth in front of him. I went downstairs in front of them all, like 60 or 70 people... they were wishing me luck with the birth. It was... like the movies,” she said, after they failed to recognize her.
Two of Hafiz’s close friends with her at the bank hold up were detained after the incident over charges of threatening bank employees and holding them against their will, and ordered released on bail on Wednesday.
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
Hafiz said she would hand herself in once judges end a crippling strike that has slowed legal procedures and left detainees languishing in jail.
Abdallah Al-Saii, an acquaintance of Hafiz who held up a bank in January to get some $50,000 of his own savings, said more hold-ups were coming.
“Things will have to get worse so that they can get better,” Saii said, taking drags from a cigarette at his convenience store in the Bekaa.
“When the state can’t do anything for you and can’t even provide a tiny bit of hope over what lies in store, then we’re living by the law of the jungle.”
Instant folk hero: Lebanese woman who stole own savings says she’s not the criminal
https://arab.news/pxdj3
Instant folk hero: Lebanese woman who stole own savings says she’s not the criminal
- Sali Hafiz, who held up Beirut bank, decries ‘country of mafias’
- She was the first of at least seven savers who held up banks last week
UN experts slam Israel’s blatant assault on health rights in Gaza
- Reiterating charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, two independent UN rights experts said they were “horrified” by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital
- UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the world body
GENEVA: UN experts have denounced Israel’s raid on an embattled hospital in northern Gaza, demanding an end to the “blatant assault” on health rights in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Reiterating charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, two independent UN rights experts said they were “horrified” by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital.
“For well over a year into the genocide, Israel’s blatant assault on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is plumbing new depths of impunity,” the experts said.
The joint statement was from Francesca Albanese, the independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, the special rapporteur on the right to health.
FASTFACT
The joint statement was from Francesca Albanese, the independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, the special rapporteur on the right to health.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva dismissed the statement as “far removed from the truth,” saying it “completely ignores critical facts and the broader context of Hamas’s exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers, something Hamas denies.
The military “undertook every effort to protect civilians,” the Israeli mission said, insisting its “actions highlight Israel’s commitment to international law and the protection of civilian infrastructure, even under the most challenging circumstances.”
Israel’s military said it had killed more than 20 suspected militants and detained more than 240, including the hospital’s director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, describing him as a suspected Hamas militant.
In their statement, Albanese and Mofokeng said they were “gravely concerned” at Safiyeh’s detention and demanded his “immediate release.”
“Yet another doctor to be harassed, kidnapped, and arbitrarily detained by the occupation forces,” they said.
“This is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy, and fully annihilate the realization of the right to health in Gaza.”
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the world body.
The experts also highlighted “disturbing reports” that Israeli forces had allegedly carried out extrajudicial executions of some people near the hospitals, including a Palestinian man reportedly holding a white flag.
They pointed to figures provided by the Health Ministry in Gaza indicating that at least 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed since the war erupted following the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly denounced the high number of attacks on health care staff and facilities in the war: 1,273 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank have been recorded since the start of the war.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on X that the pace of desperately needed medical evacuations out of Gaza was “excruciatingly slow.”
“Only 5,383 patients have been evacuated with support from WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah crossing was closed” last May, he said.
He said more than 12,000 people were awaiting medical evacuation from Gaza.
“At this rate, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children,” he added.
“In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die.”
Lebanon’s PM discusses with Syria’s de facto ruler relations between two countries
Sharaa also affirmed that Syrian authorities took the necessary measures to restore calm on the border between the two countries, the post on X said.
Syrian foreign minister to visit Qatar, UAE and Jordan this week
CAIRO: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani said in a statement posted on X on Friday that he will visit Qatar, the UAE and Jordan this week to “support stability, security, economic recovery and build distinguished partnerships.”
Lebanese army unit clashes with Syrian gunmen at illegal border crossing
- Interior minister defends additional security measures at airport and land crossing points
BEIRUT: A Lebanese army unit clashed with a group of armed Syrian nationals at the border on Friday as the soldiers attempted to “close an illegal crossing” in the Maarboun-Baalbek area of eastern Lebanon.
The Syrians were trying to forcibly reopen the crossing with a bulldozer, the army said. Soldiers fired warning shots into the air and Syrians responded by returning fire.
The “armed Syrians fired at the Lebanese soldiers, injuring one and sparking a clash between both sides,” the army command added. “Artillery shells were used” and other Lebanese army units in the area also responded with strict military measures, it added.
Subsequently, “reinforcements from the army’s mobile regiment arrived in the area, following the retreat of the armed Syrians, some of whom sustained injuries,” and the illegal crossing remained closed.
Maarboun is a town in Baalbek-Hermel governorate, and a natural crossing point between the two countries. However it is an illegal crossing mainly used by smugglers and human traffickers. The surrounding area is known to be pro-Hezbollah.
The incident at the illegal crossing coincided with the actions of Syrian authorities on Friday morning that prevented hundreds of Lebanese from crossing the border between Masnaa in Lebanon and Jdeidet Yabous in Syria.
The Syrians suddenly imposed new conditions on Lebanese visitors, including requirements that they have a hotel reservation and at least $2,000 in cash. People visiting Syria for surgery or other medical care must now have proof of an appointment and a Syrian sponsor who can confirm their identity. A valid residence permit for the stay in Syria is also required. Lebanese authorities imposed similar rules on Syrians entering Lebanon after the civil war in Syria began more than a decade ago.
Buses carrying Lebanese passengers who intended to visit Syria were forced turn back at the border as a result of the new Syrian rules.
Lebanon’s General Security Directorate decided to “prohibit any Lebanese from entering Syria through illegal crossings between both countries in Bekaa and the north, pending clarity during this stage,” a source from the agency said.
After the fall of President Bashar Assad and his regime in Syria in early December, the directorate held two meetings with officials from the new Syrian administration to discuss the regulation of movement between the two countries.
Though media delegations, politicians and civilians have crossed into Syria in recent days, Lebanese authorities have tightened security at land crossings, following similar actions at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut.
Normal operations at the airport resumed on Friday after an incident on Thursday night involving an aircraft belonging to Iranian airline Mahan Air. Airport security decided to conduct a thorough inspection of all passengers when the plane landed, including luggage belonging to diplomats on board. The diplomats protested and chose instead to leave their luggage at the airport. It was taken to a storage facility for inspection the following day using scanners.
Footage circulated on social media apparently showing young men on motorcycles heading to the airport to protest against the measures. It was believed the heightened security was motivated by concerns that passengers might be carrying money for delivery to Hezbollah. A second Iranian plane that landed on Friday faced similar security measures.
Lebanon’s interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, described the move as a routine procedure and added: “What the airport security is doing aims to protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people. We are enforcing the law, protecting the airport and safeguarding all of Lebanon because it cannot withstand any new aggression.”
The decision covered the inspection of all luggage, he said, including that carried by diplomats.
The heightened measures drew criticism from the vice president of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, Sheikh Ali Al-Khatib. During his Friday sermon, he called on the interior minister “to demonstrate his heroism against the enemy, not against those who made sacrifices to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
Also on Friday, US Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, head of the international committee monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, toured Khiam, where the Lebanese army was deployed after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces. He was accompanied by Brig. Gen. Tony Faris, commander of the Lebanese army’s 7th Brigade.
Their visit came as Israel continued to face criticism for violating Lebanese sovereignty, including reconnaissance flights over southern Lebanon, extending as far as the southern suburbs of Beirut. Israeli forces were also accused of demolishing houses and roads in Dhayra and Jebbayn, and there were renewed warnings to residents of southern Lebanon not to return to homes in border areas until further notice.
There was a heavy presence of UN Interim Force in Lebanon forces along the Bayada-Naqoura road. The Lebanese army has placed concrete barriers on the road to Naqoura, preventing people other than UNIFIL personnel from entering. The UN force’s headquarters is located there.
The Lebanese army said it was surveying military remnants in Naqoura following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the town on Thursday. When this task is complete, Lebanese forces will be redeployed to the area, it added.
Hamas wants Gaza ceasefire deal as soon as possible, senior official says
- Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas
CAIRO: Hamas said a new round of indirect talks on a Gaza ceasefire resumed in Qatar’s Doha on Friday, stressing the group’s seriousness in seeking to reach a deal as soon as possible, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said.
The new talks will focus on agreeing on a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, he added.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end more than a year of devastating conflict in Gaza.
A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.
In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.
But a war of words then broke out with Hamas accusing Israel of setting “new conditions” while Israel accused Hamas of creating “new obstacles” to a deal.
In its Friday statement, Hamas said it reaffirmed its “seriousness, positivity and commitment to reaching an agreement as soon as possible that meets the aspirations and goals of our steadfast and resilient people.
