GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Nov. 25, the Crossings and Ports Supervision Department affiliated with Gaza's Ministry of Interior announced it had foiled an attempt to smuggle antiquities through the Rafah crossing.
It reported seizing four ancient coins from a woman who claimed she was given them by a man who had asked her to deliver them to another man on the other side. She also claimed she was unaware the four pieces were antiquities. The case and the confiscated coins were referred to the Tourism and Antiquities Police Department, which arrested the man who had given her the coins.
Jamal Abu Raida, director of the Department of Antiquities at the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Monitor each of the four ancient Greek coins from the period of Alexander the Great is worth around $100,000. He said, “The investigation is ongoing. A number of the defendants in this case confessed to previous successful smuggling operations of coins that were sold abroad for thousands of dollars.”
He said that charges have been filed against several smugglers involved in the case.
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