Four charged in fresh Gaza smuggling scandal, said aided by IDF officer

Four Arab citizens were charged Thursday with trafficking millions of shekels’ worth of goods into the Gaza Strip, the latest case of alleged smuggling into the enclave.

The case is also said to involve an Israeli soldier with access to the Strip.

The State Attorney’s Office filed two indictments against the defendants, accusing them of smuggling large quantities of cigarettes, electronics and other valuable goods through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on two separate occasions.

The defendants smuggled for “financial gain, while aware of the possibility that the prohibited goods would reach the Hamas organization and its operatives,” prosecutors said.

According to the indictments filed in the Haifa District Court, Ghaith and Amir Ghadir, from the northern Arab town of Bir al-Maksur, exploited their connection to a deputy battalion commander in the IDF who oversaw the flow of goods in and out of Gaza.

The case is the latest in a series of smuggling scandals to rock the IDF lately, as the IDF reservist Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, stands trial for allegedly smuggling cigarettes into the Strip.

The smuggled goods in this case were allegedly procured by a Palestinian supermarket owner from Hebron — who coordinated with Gazans on the receiving end of the smuggling.

The goods were then said to have been transported by a truck driver from Rahat named Adnan Abu Latif with the help of Amin Abu Latif, another resident of the Bedouin city.

The first successful smuggling attempt allegedly took place in early November. Late at night, Adnan and Amin were said to meet in the Hebron warehouse and load the truck with around 100 crates of cigarettes, makeup and perfume, pallets of hookah coal and six pairs of bicycles — collectively worth millions of shekels.

Then, Adnan allegedly drove with the goods to the Kerem Shalom crossing and exited the truck while its doors were still open and its engine still running. It was then picked up and driven into the Strip by individuals unknown to the prosecution. Adnan and Amin were paid NIS 450,000 ($146,000) for their actions, prosecutors said.

Two months later, in January, the pair made contact with the other two defendants and joined forces to smuggle cellphones, cigarettes, car batteries, electric bicycles, laptops, routers and chargers into the Strip, according to the indictment. Those involved received a total of NIS 4.5 million ($1.5 million).

The deputy battalion commander enlisted by the two defendants from Bir al-Maksur allegedly told other soldiers not to check or document the truck carrying the smuggled goods once it arrived at the border. He will be prosecuted separately by the Military Advocate General, a legal body within the IDF.

In the second case, it was Adnan who allegedly drove into the enclave after the Gazan truck driver, who was meant to pick up the goods, never arrived. The Israeli citizen passed the Yellow Line demarcating the IDF’s deployment in Gaza, and continued into Hamas-controlled territory, where he remained for three days before being extracted by IDF forces, prosecutors said.

The State Attorney’s Office said the defendants “exposed the entire State of Israel to a tangible and real danger,” noting that if Adnan had been kidnapped by hostile actors, Israel “would have been forced to launch a military operation to rescue him or to pursue a hostage exchange deal for his release.”

Prosecutors noted that prohibited goods, even those that can’t be repurposed toward violent ends, serve to strengthen Hamas financially, since the terror group often sells such goods to residents of the Strip while boxing independent vendors out of the market, hiking prices while channeling funds to the terror group’s coffers.

The four were indicted on severe charges, including assisting the enemy during wartime, using property for terrorist purposes, aggravated fraud and obstructing an investigation.

Gunrunning on Jordanian border

Meanwhile, the police and Shin Bet announced that security forces had caught a firearms smuggling attempt from Jordan into Israel, arresting three Bedouin Israelis implicated in the alleged trafficking.

The trio tried to sneak 36 handguns and 63 magazines into the country by way of a heavy-duty drone, the agencies said in a joint statement.

The army intercepted their drone in January. They were soon arrested near the Jordanian border, transferred to the Arad police station and later interrogated by Shin Bet agents on smuggling suspicions.

The three men were indicted Thursday in the Beersheba District Court, police announced, after over a month of investigating the case.