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Mending Gaza's Money: One Woman Restores Worn Shekel Notes by Hand

Manal al-Saadani repairs torn Israeli shekel notes by hand in Nuseirat market, using glue and a utility blade to make worn bills acceptable for shops. The blockade since October 2023 has curtailed deliveries of new banknotes to Gaza, leaving many people with damaged cash that merchants often reject. Saadani charges a small fee per repaired bill, helping families buy essentials while highlighting a broader shortage that affects everyday life.

12:52 PM, 11/29/2025Conflict
Mending Gaza's Money: One Woman Restores Worn Shekel Notes by Hand

In central Gaza, Manal al-Saadani spends her days repairing torn Israeli shekel notes with a pot of glue, a utility blade and a steady hand. Her work has become a small but vital service where fresh banknotes are scarce and damaged cash is frequently rejected by vendors.

Each morning she carries a small plastic table from Al-Bureij refugee camp to the market in Nuseirat, where a steady stream of people bring bills with tears, holes and faded ink. For a few coins per bill—typically one or two shekels for a 20-shekel note—Saadani carefully bonds paper, smooths edges on a glass plate and, when needed, refreshes faded colours so the notes are more likely to be accepted in shops.

"I decided to work and started repairing banknotes," she said. "Because I'm a woman... most people on the street stood by me and supported me."

Working close to the light, she studies each note to assess the damage and tests her repairs by holding the bills up to the sun. The job is painstaking and exhausting, and Saadani says she longs to be home with her daughters.

"Look at me with compassion and mercy and understand me as a Palestinian mother," she said, her voice strained. "I am very tired."

The shortage of new banknotes stems from the restrictions on goods entering Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023, which has limited deliveries of many essentials—including fresh currency—to local banks. The Israeli new shekel is used across the Palestinian territories; one shekel is worth roughly $0.30.

Bank of Israel Series C notes (introduced in 2014) feature portraits of Hebrew poets and are printed in distinctive colours: 20 shekels in red, 50 in green, 100 in orange and 200 in blue. When ink fades or paper frays, shopkeepers may refuse the bills, forcing shoppers to rely on repairers like Saadani to keep everyday trade going.

Customers such as Nabila Shenar say damaged cash complicates ordinary purchases. "If we try to use this money to buy anything from any grocery store, they tell us it's damaged and unusable," she said. "Therefore, we've had to go to people who repair money for two shekels for 20-shekel notes and three shekels for 50-shekel notes."

Small repairers help maintain local commerce amid wider shortages, but their work underscores a larger problem: without an influx of new banknotes and other supplies, ordinary life becomes harder for millions who rely on cash for daily purchases.

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