Widespread Israeli military raids targeting money exchange offices across the occupied West Bank overnight have stoked outrage, with Palestinian business owners accusing forces of conducting armed heists and engaging in collective punishment.<\/p>\n
In what appeared to be the largest such operation, Israeli troops raided all 11 branches of the Palestinian exchange currency company al-Mulathum in various West Bank cities and towns. Four employees were detained during the raids.<\/p>\n
Al-Mulathum estimated its total losses from the military\u2019s confiscation and vandalization at around 4 million shekels (over $1.1 million). Computers, safes, cash and other valuables were seized with no legal proceedings or evidence presented, the company said.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said in a statement that the exchange company was raided for its alleged affiliation and money transfers connected to \u201cterrorist groups\u201d \u2013 a claim Palestinian authorities vehemently rejected as wrongful collective punishment.<\/p>\n
The army left behind notices accusing al-Mulathum and any affiliated businesses of enabling financing for armed groups, effectively criminalizing them. Photos showed the company\u2019s Nablus office heavily damaged, with furniture and equipment strewn about.<\/p>\n
The sheer scale and disruptive nature of the raids immediately sparked condemnations from Palestinian officials, business leaders and human rights monitors \u2013 especially as they came just months after similar military operations.<\/p>\n
In December, Al-Mulathum estimated around 1 million shekels ($275,000) in losses when Israeli troops raided its offices alongside other major Palestinian exchange companies across the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Much like earlier raids, the Israeli military provided no evidence of links between the targeted businesses and militant groups. Palestinian authorities insist the companies simply provide normal financial services and foreign currency transfers for Palestinian workers, businesses and families.<\/p>\n
Human rights groups accused Israel of waging a systemic economic crackdown on Palestinian businesses, finances and markets in violation of international laws governing occupied territories.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military defended the raids as necessary counter-terrorism operations aimed at disrupting money transfers that could fund militant groups like Hamas. No evidence of specific transactions has been provided, however.<\/p>\n
As occupation and conflict grinds on, the repeated strikes against the Palestinian financial sector have sown a climate of fear, distrust and economic instability throughout the West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In what appeared to be the largest such operation, Israeli troops raided all 11 branches of the Palestinian exchange currency company al-Mulathum in various West Bank cities and towns. Four employees were detained during the raids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":406,"featured_media":17463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[10702,317,322,826,316,183,838],"class_list":["post-17462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-al-mulatham","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-west-bank"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/406"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}