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Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Shin Bet chief’s brother accused of Gaza smuggling admitted getting money from fellow defendant — report
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Bezalel Zini, the Shin Bet chief’s brother who is currently on trial for the alleged smuggling of cigarettes into Gaza, admitted to police that he received money from another defendant in the case, Channel 12 reports.
Zini, brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini and an IDF reservist who helmed logistics for a force doing demolition work in Gaza, was indicted two weeks ago as part of a wider smuggling case. He is accused of abusing his access to the enclave to smuggle 14 crates of cigarettes from Israel into Gaza on three occasions, making a total of NIS 365,000 ($117,405).
He is charged with assisting the enemy during wartime, a severe offense in Israeli law. Though his legal team denies the charges against him, Zini admitted to receiving money when interrogated by police prior to his indictment, Channel 12 reports.
According to the report, Aviel Ben David, another of the alleged smugglers who served under Zini in the army, incriminated his higher-up and told an interrogator he paid Zini NIS 200,000 ($65,000) in cash on one occasion.
The transfer took place two days after the pair drove into Gaza together with a crate of Marlboro cigarettes, according to the testimony.
In transcripts of two interrogation sessions obtained by the outlet, Zini initially rejects the allegations. “My entry into the Strip is a daily situation… I deny any relation to the event,” he says.
But he admits receiving payment from Ben David when the investigator asks how much he has been paid, the network reports.
“I don’t know how much, it could be NIS 200,000 or 250,000 ($65-80,000), I don’t know,” he says, according to the reported transcript.
When asked if he received more than NIS 300,000 ($97,000), he reportedly responds: “I received [money], I don’t know how much.”
He does not say, in the reported transcript, that he received the money for smuggling.
According to other Hebrew media reports, Zini denied knowing the money was given in exchange for smuggling.
Zini was indicted in the Beersheba District Court alongside Ben David and his acquaintance Amir Dov Halperin earlier this month. The latter two allegedly smuggled cigarettes into the Strip on five separate occasions.
The Times of Israel Community.