Lebanese patient robs bank for his sister’s treatment

A Lebanese woman robbed a bank in Beirut today and fled with thousands of dollars, which she apparently said would finance her sick sister’s hospital treatment.

Sali Hafez broadcast a live video of the robbery in which he shouted at the bank employees to hand over the money while the doors of the bank were locked.

“My name is Sali Hafiz, today (…) I came to collect the relics of my sister who was dying in the hospital,” he says in the video.

“I didn’t come to kill anyone or start a conflict (…) I came to claim my rights,” he adds.

Lebanon has witnessed a string of robberies from customers whose savings have been blocked in banks for nearly three years due to the country’s severe economic crisis.

The woman immediately became a social media hero in Lebanon, where she resented the banking industry, which many saw as hopeless for their money and corrupt.

A second woman in the video claims to have received more than $13,000. Behind him, another man was carrying wads of plastic-wrapped bills.

An AFP reporter who arrived at the scene said gasoline was thrown into the bank during the robbery.

A gun was also found on the ground, although it was not immediately clear whether it was real.

The reporter said that Hafez and his alleged accomplices managed to escape through a broken window before the security forces arrived. The attack lasted less than an hour.

Last month, a Lebanese man aroused sympathy after he robbed a bank in Beirut at gunpoint, detaining employees and customers for hours to get a portion of his $200,000 frozen assets to pay for his ailing father’s hospital bills. The man was arrested but immediately released.

In January, another client detained dozens of people in eastern Lebanon after learning they could not withdraw their foreign currency savings.

Local media reported that he finally got some of his savings and surrendered to the security forces.

Lebanon went through its worst economic crisis in 2019. The local currency lost almost 90% of its value on the black market, and poverty and unemployment increased.