The State Attorney’s Office filed indictments in the Be’er Sheva District Court on Wednesday against 12 defendants accused of participating in a “systematic and sophisticated” smuggling operation that brought goods into Gaza for profit.

A hearing regarding the Shin Bet chief’s brother, Betzalel Zini, will take place on Thursday, at which time an indictment against him will also be filed.

According to the indictment, the suspects acted with full awareness that the prohibited goods could reach Hamas and its terrorists and that their actions were likely to aid the organization in its conflict with Israel by strengthening its financial and logistical capacity. As a result, they were charged with aiding the enemy during wartime.

The smuggled goods included cigarette cartons, iPhones, car batteries, communication cables, vehicle parts, and other items worth millions of shekels.

The twelve defendants include Eliran and Avi Elgarbli, Amad al-Din Abu Mukh, Ofer Sankar, Yosef Yohananov, Yuri Yakubov, Menachem Abutbul, Nadav Halfon, Meir Levy, Oshri Dahan, Yaron (Beni) Peretz, Atar Even, and the company Anona, owned by Avi and Yaron.

The prosecution claims that the group, some of them reserve soldiers, exploited weak points in Gaza border crossings and the ongoing military activity in the area to smuggle goods while disguising their actions as legitimate military operations. The goods were collected, repackaged, and loaded under the guise of official IDF convoys, using military uniforms and documents to conceal the true purpose of their entry.

In one case, it is alleged that Menachem offered bribes to Betzalel Zini and Aviel Ben-David—reservists with clearance to escort military convoys into Gaza—asking them to transfer the contraband for a share of the profits. Menahem reportedly gave Zini a carton of cigarettes, after which Zini and Ben-David smuggled the goods into Gaza and received fifteen thousand shekels each in exchange.

The Shin Bet issued a statement in response, saying: “We emphasize that during the war, and even more so since the beginning of the ceasefire, Hamas and the terrorist organizations have been working to rehabilitate and rebuild their military and civilian systems and to strengthen Hamas’s governance in the Gaza Strip. This includes restoring damaged military infrastructure, recruiting and training operatives, renewing logistical activity, and rehabilitating command-and-control systems in the Strip.

“Smuggling constitutes a significant threat to the security of the State of Israel, as it contributes to Hamas’s survival and governance as a result of the economic profits from goods brought into the Strip. It supports Hamas’s military buildup, force development, and the restoration of military capabilities through the smuggling of goods that support production systems, as well as the smuggling of means, capabilities, and technological equipment—and even the potential smuggling of weapons. It also poses a threat stemming from the possibility that smuggling routes could be used as a platform for advancing offensive military activity into Israel and against our forces operating in the Gaza Strip.”

It should be noted that the IDF itself provides massive amounts of aid to Gaza, with a massive volume of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip over the past three months, four times the UN requirements for Gaza’s population.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)