GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Counterfeit money is spreading in Gaza. On July 11, in a first in the besieged enclave, the Gaza police raided a large factory printing fake money in Gaza City. The police had previously arrested small networks of banknote forgers.
In a press release that day, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Gaza, Brig. Gen. Hossam Shahwan, said, “We raided a banknote-counterfeiting factory in Gaza City based on information received by the CID’s Central Operations Department. The CID seized sophisticated equipment and a modern banknote printer in addition to large amounts of high-quality counterfeit banknotes.”