BEIRUT: Lebanese banks have unanimously decided to close their doors to clients indefinitely after a series of holdups by depositors seeking funds frozen in the banking system because of the country’s financial meltdown, two bankers told Reuters.
Banks will continue urgent operations for clients and back-office services for businesses, the bankers said, but front-office services will remain suspended after more than a dozen holdups in less than a month.
Banks closed for about a week last month in similar circumstances, but reopened at the beginning of October to allow employees to withdraw salaries.
Lebanon’s banks association has previously called on the government to enact formal capital controls to replace the informal controls banks adopted in 2019, but parliament has repeatedly failed to pass the law.
The government has made little progress toward reforms that would unlock an International Monetary Fund bailout to help ease a crisis caused by decades of wasteful spending and corruption.
Now in its third year, Lebanon’s financial meltdown has sunk the currency by more than 90 percent, spread poverty, paralyzed the financial system and frozen depositors out of their savings in Lebanon’s most destabilising crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.
Lebanese banks close again after holdups by depositors seeking their own money
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Lebanese banks close again after holdups by depositors seeking their own money
- Banks will continue urgent operations for clients and back-office services for businesses
Child injured as Israeli settlers assault Palestinians
- Local authorities decry ongoing efforts to restrict Palestinian livelihoods and displace Bedouin communities
HEBRON: Israeli settlers assaulted a child and attempted to run over several others in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, on Sunday evening.
In Khirbet Rajoum Ali, settlers attacked 12-year-old Salah Ismail Al-Hadra, causing bruises and other injuries.
He was taken to Yatta Governmental Hospital.
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Israeli settlers also chased shepherds in Rajum Ulei, drove livestock into crops, and conducted provocative patrols near homes.
In Khirbet Al-Halawa, settlers chased children tending sheep, assaulted several, and tried to run them over with vehicles.
Masafer Yatta has seen a sharp rise in settler attacks, often under Israeli military protection.
Separately, settlers assaulted farmers plowing land in Khirbet Salama, Kharsa (south of Hebron), injuring locals identified as Ayman Izzat Awda and Diaa Awda.
In Jabal Al-Baba Bedouin community (Al-Eizariya, south of occupied Jerusalem), Israeli forces shot at shepherds grazing sheep in Wadi Al-Hawd.
One was wounded, and another arrested.
Authorities described it as part of ongoing efforts to restrict Palestinian livelihoods and displace Bedouin communities.
Settlers also attacked farmers in Mahfuriya (south of Aqraba, Nablus) while they worked their land, and damaged windows at the home of one person, identified as Munther Shreida, in Al-Shajra, Duma.
In Masafer Yatta, settlers in military-style uniforms detained and abused six residents near Khirbet Al-Fukhit before releasing them.
Settlers also chased shepherds in Rajum Ulei, drove livestock into crops, and conducted provocative patrols near homes.
Late on Saturday, settlers attempted to steal sheep from shepherd Imad Houshiyeh’s herd in Khirbet Al-Markaz but were stopped by local residents.
