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Palestinians fight back against currency counterfeiters

Gaza officials say counterfeiting there is mostly limited to small-time operators, though sometimes high-quality foreign forgeries slip in.
A Palestinian money exchanger displays money at a market in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 25, 2015. Israel's decision to withhold $130 million a month in revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinians is strangling the economy and leaving the banking system dangerously exposed, the Palestinian central bank governor said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - RTR4UT7Y
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Scrutinizing banknotes has become common in the Gaza Strip, as citizens have been increasingly subjected to fraud and deceit lately. Counterfeit notes and coins often circulate among ordinary citizens, while the money's main sources remain unknown.

Col. Mohammed Ashour, the director of the forensics department at Gaza’s Ministry of the Interior, told Al-Monitor, “The crime lab is working on detecting all forms of counterfeiting and forgery, including documents, banknotes and passports.”

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