Cigarette smuggling trade in Gaza poses risk to aid deliveries – Wall Street Journal

Amid a breakdown of order in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian smugglers have turned their attention to contraband cigarettes as a result of the sky-high tobacco prices in the enclave, the Wall Street Journal reports, resulting in thousands of aid trucks being unable to deliver essential humanitarian supplies for fear of being attacked.

According to the report, cigarettes are smuggled into war-torn Gaza via humanitarian aid trucks, having been placed there by accomplices in Israel and the United Nations. Once passed inspection and inside Gaza, the aid trucks are then targeted both by smugglers retrieving their goods and other criminals hoping to get to them first.

A single cigarette can sell for as much as $25 in Gaza, the WSJ reports, making the smuggling trade hugely profitable.

Prior to the start of Israel’s offensive in Rafah in early May, the cigarettes were largely smuggled in via the Rafah Crossing on Gaza’s shared border with Egypt, the report adds, but after the crossing was closed indefinitely, criminals have turned to the Kerem Shalom Crossing, on the border with Israel.

As a result of the violent attacks, more than 1,000 truckloads of aid have reportedly remained stuck on the Gazan side of the crossing, and even the goods that reach their destination risk being looted by criminals attacking warehouses.

“This is threatening to undermine everything we’re trying to do,” a UN official tells the WSJ.