TPC Staff
The Palestine Chronicle / August 22, 2026
Growing complaints from Gaza customers accuse Bank of Palestine of freezing funds, closing accounts and conducting unusually intrusive investigations into clients.
Complaints from Palestinians in Gaza are raising questions about whether Bank of Palestine is imposing unusually extensive restrictions on accounts belonging to residents of the devastated enclave.
The complaints extend beyond Gaza’s severe cash shortage and difficulties withdrawing physical currency.
According to testimonies collected by Quds News Network (QNN), customers have reported accounts being frozen or closed, withdrawals and transfers being restricted, and some clients being subjected to extensive questioning about their financial activities.
The reports have become particularly consequential in Gaza, where Israel’s genocide has devastated the economy and left many families heavily dependent on bank accounts for salaries, savings and transfers from relatives abroad.
Bank of Palestine denies arbitrarily restricting customers and says its actions comply with applicable laws, regulations and instructions governing the banking sector.
Yet customers and human rights advocates say unanswered questions remain over who is being subjected to restrictions, why their accounts are being targeted and how long they can be denied access to their own money.
‘We will not reactivate this account’
Among the latest cases is that of Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Zaanin.
Al-Zaanin said he recently underwent an interrogation with an employee from Bank of Palestine’s expatriates department after asking the bank to reactivate an account that he said had been closed without a clear explanation after he left Gaza before the war.
He told the employee that he needed the account to meet family obligations and said he was prepared to comply with the bank’s policies and transaction limits.
According to Al-Zaanin’s account, however, he was questioned about why he needed the account, whom he intended to send money to, how much he planned to transfer and why he could not instead rely on international money transfers.
Alas, his request was ultimately rejected. “We will not reactivate this account. That’s it,” Al-Zaanin quoted the bank employee as telling him.
Al-Zaanin said the decision remained unchanged even after he challenged the employee using the bank’s published policies and conditions, which he believed allowed the account to be restored.
‘Dozens of cases’
Al-Zaanin’s case is not the only complaint. Some say it is part of a long standing policy imposed by the bank on Gazans, even during the height of the ongoing Israeli genocide.
Rami Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, says his organization is following dozens of cases involving Gaza customers whose accounts have allegedly been frozen or whose ability to withdraw their money has been restricted.
Complaints have also emerged involving former Palestinian detainees and families of Palestinians killed by Israel, including claims that balances were frozen or applications for new accounts rejected.
According to Abdu, as cited in QNN, Bank of Palestine has cited different explanations for restrictions, ranging from efforts to combat profiteering and “war merchants” to financial compliance requirements intended to protect the institution from possible international sanctions.
Abdu acknowledges that banks have legitimate obligations concerning financial compliance, money laundering and financing prohibited activities.
But he argues that these requirements do not adequately explain cases in which customers without declared banking violations or political affiliations allegedly remain unable to access their own funds.
Half a million dollars out of reach
One case highlighted by Abdu involves a Gaza businessman who reportedly has approximately $500,000 in his account.
According to Abdu, the man authorized his nephew, an accountant, to manage banking procedures on his behalf because he cannot read or write.
The bank subsequently restricted his access to the funds, Abdu said.
The case raises a central question running through the complaints: where does legitimate financial scrutiny end and arbitrary denial of access to a customer’s own money begin?
The consequences can be particularly severe in Gaza, because a frozen account may contain not simply disposable savings but a family’s remaining money, an employee’s salary or the capital keeping a business alive.
Personal investigations
Perhaps the most serious allegations concern the type of information reportedly being collected about some customers.
Abdu says complaints received by his organization indicate that scrutiny has sometimes extended beyond the conventional examination of transactions and sources of funds.
Customers have reported inquiries into their relationships and activities, while people in their social or professional circles have allegedly been contacted to verify information about them, according to Abdu.
Abdu further accused the bank of establishing internal committees to investigate certain customers and conducting field visits to businesses to examine their ownership, activities and relationships.
He claims that the information gathered through these processes has, in some cases, contributed to decisions to freeze or close accounts.
If substantiated, he argues, such practices would raise questions about whether banking compliance procedures are expanding into broader investigations of customers’ personal or political associations.
Bank denies arbitrary measures
Bank of Palestine rejects the characterization that it is arbitrarily targeting customers.
According to the bank, decisions involving account freezes and closures are taken in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and instructions issued by the relevant authorities, QNN reported.
The bank has also reportedly said that procedures concerning accounts belonging to deceased customers are governed by judicial decisions and established inheritance procedures.
The complaints reported by QNN, however, concern more than whether banks have the legal authority to restrict an account.
Customers have raised questions about the absence of detailed explanations, the length of restrictions, difficulties challenging decisions and uncertainty over whether — and when — they will regain full access to their funds.
Gaza’s banking dilemma
The dispute comes amid extraordinary economic conditions in Gaza.
Israel’s ongoing genocide has devastated businesses, displaced families and severely disrupted the circulation of physical currency, increasing the importance of electronic banking and transfers at precisely the moment when ordinary financial activity has become more difficult.
Gazans who have left the enclave during the genocide may have lost documents, changed their sources of income, begun receiving money internationally or turned to remote work simply to survive.
Those circumstances can also trigger additional compliance scrutiny from financial institutions.
Critics argue that banks must find a way to fulfil legitimate regulatory obligations without forcing ordinary Palestinians to bear the consequences of Gaza’s exceptional political and economic circumstances.
The issue affects not only individual account holders, but families of Palestinians killed by Israel, former detainees, heirs, business owners, civil society organizations and freelancers whose ability to access the banking system may determine their ability to survive economically.
(Quds News Network)
