Beirut: A Lebanese woman on Wednesday held up a BLOM BANK branch in the capital, Beirut, and was able to take about 20,000 dollar with toy gun of her own money to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment, the National News Agency reported.
28-year-old Lebanese depositor Sally Hafez threw gasoline on herself and threatened to set herself on fire if she did not receive her deposit to treat her sick sister.
Later, the depositor was able to take an amount of 20,000 dollars from the bank, which was confirmed by the Lebanese Depositors Association, adding that “Sally Hafez will not be the last.”
The Lebanese Depositors Association stated that “the depositor, Sally Hafez, entered the Sodeco branch in the morning and released her deposit of 20,000 dollar by force of arms, at a time when the six banks and parties are trading with an exchange platform at the expense of Jana Omar, the depositors.”
Later, Hafez appeared in an interview with the local Al-Jadeed channel. Commenting on her storming the bank, she said: “Two days ago, I went to the bank manager and asked him to give me a sum of money, and he told me that he would give me.”
She pointed out that she had reached the stage of selling her kidney in order to treat her sister, who was ill with cancer.
“My sister needs 50,000 dollar to be treated. We sold our house and took 13,000 dollar, and the rest is in Lebanese currency,” she added.
She continued, “I told the employees in the bank that I am coming to save my sister and I do not want to harm you, and the weapon is not real and my nephew plays with it. I did not expect to use it, because I am against weapons in Lebanon.”
On Tuesday, Sally published on her social accounts, accompanied by a picture of her sick sister, in which she promised her that she would do everything in her power to travel and be treated to raise her daughter, even if it cost her her life.
Sally’s move topped the social networking sites in Lebanon, and some described her as a “champion”.
On August 11, a Lebanese gunman stormed a bank on Hamra Street in the capital, took hostages, and the operation ended after an agreement was reached with him to hand over part of his deposited funds.
In a similar incident, in January 2022, a Lebanese man recovered 50,000 dollar from his deposit after he stormed a bank in the Bekaa Governorate (east), took a number of hostages and threatened to burn the place.
Since the financial crisis began in Lebanon in 2019, many commercial banks have placed restrictions and controls on customer balances in foreign currency.
Banks set a cap on monthly cash withdrawals in US dollars, and allow other limited amounts of Lebanese pounds to be withdrawn at a rate much lower than the parallel market rate, resulting in a significant reduction in the original value of deposits.
