2/ Hamas, of course, cannot go to Israel to exchange its bills for the new ones. It would be a public move, and all Gaza residents and merchants would immediately know that the old bills have lost value. Hamas would lose a major part of its financial base and would struggle to pay salaries to its operatives - this would seriously and immediately undermine its grip on power in the strip. An unpaid operative struggles to survive, to buy food for his family, and his loyalty to Hamas weakens. In this way, Israel would be using its power as the issuer of currency to advance its interests against its enemy. One can assume that the cost of replacing the bills (printing new banknotes) would at the very least be recovered - probably more than that - since anyone holding cash in Israel would need to deposit it in a bank (helping to fight tax evasion money, for instance) in order to receive bills from the new series. By exchanging bill for bill, confidence in the Israeli currency wouldn’t be undermined. I’m including examples showing that the cost of converting money to cash in Gaza these days - i.e., liquidity - reaches up to 28%. Also attached is a recent video of a Gazan explaining the chaos surrounding 20 shekel bills in Gaza’s markets. 👇👇" #TheGazaYouDontSee Links follow
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