Gaza Herald – Euro-Med Monitor warned that Israeli and US plans to impose digital wallets in Gaza were part of a broader strategy to control the population and restructure the economy. Over the past two years, Palestinians endured a strict financial blockade, which closed banks, prevented cash withdrawals, and limited access to essential resources.
Field data and reports indicated that these measures contributed directly to hunger, deprivation, and thousands of civilian casualties.
The introduction of digital wallets under Israeli oversight transformed access to money, food, medicine, and shelter into privileges conditional on security assessments.
Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that this system allowed real-time monitoring, arbitrary freezing of funds, and selective exclusion, all without Palestinian sovereignty or meaningful oversight.
Humanitarian aid tied to digital accounts risked becoming a coercive tool, with survival dependent on compliance with opaque security classifications.
Euro-Med emphasized that linking financial services and basic needs to biometric checks, political conditions, or security clearances violated international humanitarian law, including prohibitions on collective punishment and the use of starvation as a weapon.
They called for full Palestinian control over economic systems, independent appeal mechanisms for fund access, and transparency in all operations to prevent the digital economy from serving as a programmable instrument of coercion and displacement.
The Monitor stressed that reconstruction efforts lacking Palestinian sovereignty merely reinforced an illegal system of domination. Digital wallets, under occupation control, risked cementing dependency, deepening poverty, and extending the effects of the blockade in a “smart” form, where essential services became conditional privileges rather than universal rights.
Independent oversight, audits of privacy and cybersecurity impacts, and public transparency regarding operators, contractors, and funders were deemed essential by Euro-Med to prevent misuse of financial technology against civilians.
They also recommended safe non-digital alternatives to ensure all vulnerable populations could access survival necessities without discrimination.
Euro-Med concluded that genuine economic recovery in Gaza requires lifting unlawful restrictions on cash, goods, and communications, and establishing an independent Palestinian civil authority to govern financial and digital systems. Without this, digital tools would remain instruments of control and silent displacement rather than instruments of reconstruction or humanitarian relief.
