Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has warned that US-Israeli plans to introduce digital wallets in Gaza risk turning access to money, food, and aid into tools of coercion under the regime's oversight.
The Geneva-based rights organization warned that plans to implement a digital economy in the besieged Palestinian territory could turn access to money and humanitarian aid into tools of coercion, giving the Tel Aviv regime and its allies unprecedented control over daily life and essential services in Gaza.
The plan, outlined by Israeli businessman and former intelligence officer Liran Tancman, involves creating what he described as a “secure digital backbone” to support electronic payments, education, and financial services, alongside an “Amazon-like logistics system.”
Tancman presented the scheme at a Washington event, describing it as a foundation for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Euro-Med Monitor said the approach risks turning financial technology into a tool of coercion, enabling real-time monitoring, arbitrary restrictions, and selective freezing of funds—particularly affecting journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.
“Subjecting the right of access to financial resources to a security authority undermines the core of economic and social rights, damages the right to food and human dignity, and breaches international humanitarian law,” the Monitor said.
It warned that such a system could effectively allow collective punishment, in violation of the prohibition on using starvation as a warfare tactic.
Euro-Med Monitor also highlighted the role of Tancman in the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which sparked outrage over its so-called aid distribution practices during Israel’s genocidal war against the people of Gaza.
It said field data suggest that the foundation’s policies contributed to engineered starvation conditions in Gaza, resulting in around 1,200 civilian deaths and thousands of injuries as desperate residents attempted to access food assistance.
The organization also said that proposals to link aid distribution to “biometric checks" would effectively transform humanitarian relief into a system of surveillance, data collection, and security control.
Currently, Israel enforces extensive security classifications over Palestinians, limiting movement and access to services. Euro-Med Monitor warned that integrating financial systems into this framework could extend these restrictions to money itself, further increasing dependency and control over the population.
The human rights group called for any digital infrastructure in Gaza to operate under full Palestinian sovereignty over data and financial systems.
It also called for independent audits, transparency of operators and funders, non-digital alternatives for essential services, and robust appeal mechanisms for asset freezes or transaction restrictions.
The Monitor urged the establishment of an independent Palestinian civil authority to govern Gaza’s financial and technological systems without interference from the occupation.
It said that genuine economic recovery requires lifting unlawful restrictions on crossings, cash flow, goods, and communications rather than replacing a physical blockade with a “smart” digital one that perpetuates violations.
The Gaza Strip has been under a near-continuous blockade imposed by Israel since 2007, restricting the movement of people, goods, and capital.
The blockade, followed by two years of genocide and ethnic cleansing, has left Gaza’s economy in severe decline, with high unemployment, widespread poverty, and limited access to essential services such as healthcare, electricity, and clean water.
Press TV’s website
