Israel's central bank is replacing millions of torn and dirty shekel bills in Gaza as the unusable money has caused a cash crisis in the Palestinian territory.

Armored trucks of the Bank of Israel picked up three million unusable shekel bills from banks in Gaza on Tuesday. They will return the same amount in new banknotes Friday despite intermittent rocket attacks on Israeli land by Hamas militants. The replacement money will be the second batch Israel will send to Gaza in two weeks amid a fragile ceasefire with Hamas.

Israel stopped transferring money and goods to the Gaza Strip after the anti-Israel Hamas group took control of the Strip from the Fatah group in an armed coup in June 2007. The Fatah faction rules the West Bank.

Civil servants working for the Ramallah government in West Bank could not get their salaries as automated teller machines of banks in Gaza could not dispense tattered bills. Gaza banks need about 200 million shekels a month just for the salaries of civil servants. The Hamas government pays its 22,000 employees in dollars through the post office.