The tiring task of repairing Gaza's tattered banknotes

Nuseirat: With a pot of glue, a blade and a keen eye, Manal al-Saadani repairs tattered banknotes — a necessity in the Gaza Strip, where the cash in circulation is wearing out.

For every revived note she gives back to a customer, they give her a few coins in return.

As Gaza remained blockaded for much of the Israeli war since October 2023, basic supplies were depleted, including banknotes, with no new ones supplied to its banks.

Every day, Saadani carries her small plastic table a few kilometres from Al-Bureij refugee camp and sets it up in the market in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

A string of people come to Saadani’s table, showing her the flaws in their Israeli shekel notes.

“I decided to work and started repairing banknotes,” she told AFP, explaining it is her only source of income.

“Because I’m a woman… most people on the street stood by me and supported me. They would bring me 20-shekel notes and tell me: ‘We want you to repair this for one or two shekels.’ Which I accepted, and thank God for that.”

Working on a thick sheet of glass, she uses the blade from a utility knife to work the glue into the paper and smooths it out on the surface with her fingertips.

Saadani holds the notes up to the light, studying the damage and examining her handiwork.

But she wishes she was at home with her daughters instead.

“Look at me with compassion and mercy and understand me as a Palestinian mother,” she said, her voice straining with emotion.

“I am very tired.”

– Cash crisis –

The Israeli new shekel is used throughout the Palestinian territories. One shekel is worth $0.30.

The Bank of Israel’s first Series C notes entered circulation in 2014. They feature the portraits of prominent Hebrew poets, with the 20 note in red, the 50 in green, the 100 in orange and the 200 in blue.

Saadani rubs colours back into the notes to refresh their appearance.

“Go and buy some biscuits with it,” she said, handing back a customer two 20-shekel notes.

Nabila Shenar, one of Saadani’s customers, explained how tattered banknotes make life difficult.

“Most of the money is damaged,” she told AFP.

“If we try to use this money to buy anything from any grocery store, they tell us it’s damaged and unusable.

“Therefore, we’ve had to go to people who repair money for two shekels for 20-shekel notes and three shekels for 50-shekel notes.

“They need to find a solution to this problem and provide us with money so we can live our lives and buy what we need, but because of these damaged banknotes we can’t buy anything.”