Protesters try to pull out a gate to the Justice Palace in Beirut, demanding the release of two people involved in a bank heist the prior week. Photo: AFP/Anwar Amro
Lebanese banks will remain shut "indefinitely" due to a lack of security protection by authorities, says their association.
Amid Lebanon's painful currency crisis, depositors have been locked out of their foreign currency savings by banking controls that have gradually tightened since 2019.
Banks have in the past been targeted in street protests, often leaving their windows and ATMs smashed.
Now, many frustrated depositors, unable to transfer or withdraw their dollar deposits, have resorted to desperate bank heists to free their money.
The announcement by the Association of Lebanese Banks follows a string of raids by customers demanding access to frozen savings last week.
It said their employees faced risks which had not been mitigated.
A woman armed with a toy gun staged a hold-up at a bank on Wednesday to pay for family medical bills.
There had since been other copycat raids, with reports of at least five last Friday.
Lebanon is in a severe economic crisis, with more than 80 percent of the population struggling to afford food and medicine.
The raids had mostly drawn support from the general public, and been seen as acts of desperation by people who did not have criminal records and were trying to settle bills.
Banks had limited withdrawals of dollars since 2019, when the value of the Lebanese pound plummeted and inflation soared.
- BBC