In Gaza, money is falling apart

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Israel has been blocking the flow of physical money into Gaza since the start of the war. So whatever paper cash was in Gaza before the war, that’s all that’s been circulating. It's falling apart from overuse.

Two best friends, one in Gaza and one in Belgium, are now trying to get money in.

But how do you get money into a bank account in Gaza? And how do you get that money out, in Gaza, when there are no functioning banks or ATMs? And almost no electricity. And spotty internet. And what is there to buy? How does money even work in Gaza right now?

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This episode was hosted by Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Marianne McCune, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo, Robert Rodriguez, and James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:10.3	Hello?
0:12.7	The other day, I joined a call between these two old friends.
0:17.3	Al-Aldein Sheikh Khalid and Muhammad Awad.
0:19.8	Hello, how'sa.
0:24.6	Hey, Muhammad. Hi. Hi, al- They haven't seen each other in 11 years, but they're always on the phone together.
0:30.9	Everything. You talk daily?
0:33.9	Yes. He's my best friend. He's my brother. He's everything that friendship means.
0:42.0	And Al-A-Land, who is Muhammad to you?
0:45.0	Muhammad is really like, the best human I can know when bad things happening.
0:50.5	Muhammad got in even more, like, higher place and inside my soul.
0:56.9	So, yeah.
0:58.5	Al-Din caused Muhammad Modi.
1:00.5	Yeah, we call him Modi.
1:02.2	Mohamed because Al-Din, just Al-A, pretty simple nicknames.
1:06.2	They were much more creative in high school.
1:08.6	Allah, we called him the prince. You called him the prince?
1:14.0	Yeah, he's right. And then Mohamed al-Maestro.
1:17.0	So the maestro and the prince.
1:19.6	Oh, yes. Yeah, too best friend.
1:23.0	Al-Din, Al-A, the prince, and Mohamed Modi, the maestro grew up together in Gaza.
1:30.2	In high school, Mohammed used to have to walk by Al-Lidin's house on the way to school.
	...

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