State prosecutors file charges against 12 suspects in Gaza smuggling case

State prosecutors file charges against 12 suspects, among them IDF reservists, who are accused of taking part in a major smuggling ring that trafficked goods into the Gaza Strip.

The defendants are indicted in the Beersheba District Court for assisting the enemy during wartime, financing terror activity, fraud and bribery for their alleged smuggling of goods into the enclave.

The items allegedly smuggled include cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, telecommunications cables and car parts, worth millions of shekels in total. Some of these goods are classified as “dual-use” items, meaning they can be used by Hamas for terror activities.

The alleged smuggling ring is also linked to Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, who is thought to have helped the network’s members smuggle cigarettes, taking advantage of his reserve service in the Gaza Strip.

Zini has not yet been charged in the scandal, and is expected to be indicted tomorrow.

The Shin Bet says that throughout the war, “and even more so since the beginning of the ceasefire,” Hamas has been working to rebuild its capabilities and strengthen its governance in the Strip, using money from smuggled goods.

Israel has banned the entry of cigarettes and other tobacco products into Gaza during the war, with officials saying that such products, when smuggled illegally, are sold for high prices on the black market and heavily taxed by Hamas.

Prosecutors say that “a major illicit commodity smuggled into the Strip is tobacco and cigarettes, which have brought Hamas a total of hundreds of millions of shekels into its pockets since the beginning of the war, helping it, among other things, maintain its economic survival and its grip on the territory.”

“Smuggling constitutes a significant threat to the security of the State of Israel, as it assists Hamas’s survival and governance,” the Shin Bet says. “It also poses a threat stemming from the possibility of using smuggling routes as a platform to advance offensive military activity in Israel and against our forces in the Gaza Strip.”