Deputy Manager Mahmad Manasra of the Supervision Department of the Palestinian Authority's Curreny Authority accused Hamas on Friday of using force to take $340,000 from the safe of the Palestinian Development Bank in Gaza on Tuesday and Thursday.
Interviewed by the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency, Manasra says an officer of Hamas's interior ministry tried to cash bad checks and was joined by Hamas police officers who threatened to use their weapons when bank personnel refused. A check for a quarter of a million dollars was "cashed" in this way on Tuesday and the interior ministry officer used force to take $90,000 Thursday.
Gaza banks closed in protest. Mansara expressed concern that the same thing will happen on Sunday so that Hamas can pay its office staff.