Judge Alon Gabizon, the president of the Southern District Magistrate’s Court, sharply critcized prosecutors for charging the defendants in the Gaza smuggling affair with aiding the enemy in wartime—an offense carrying a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment.

“I have difficulty understanding this offense,” Gabizon said during a hearing at the Be’er Sheva District Court on Wednesday. “How can people be accused of aiding the enemy while the state itself aids the enemy? You went too far.”

Gabizon asked the Southern District Prosecutor’s Office to re-examine whether the offense of aiding the enemy in wartime truly matches the actions of all the suspects, most of whom smuggled only cigarettes into the Strip. Following the judge’s request, prosecutors consulted with the most senior levels of the prosecution. Upon returning to the hearing, they announced that at this stage they decided to leave the charge unchanged. However, Gabizon ruled that a clear distinction must be made among the defendants regarding attribution of the aiding-the-enemy offense, and said he will issue his final decision next Thursday.

About a week and a half ago, i24News reported that Southern District Attorney Erez Padan fiercely opposed State Attorney Amit Aisman’s decision to add the charge of “aiding the enemy during wartime” in the indictment against Betzalel Zini and the other suspects.

Padan said that the charge contradicts common sense, does not align with existing precedents, and violates principles of proportionality. Despite his professional objection, Aisman insisted on getting his way and added the charge to the indictment.

Adv. Yuval Kaplinsky, former head of the State Prosecution International Division, called Aisman’s decision “a display of impaired judgment, professional negligence, intoxication with power, and loss of direction.”

Indictments filed in a recent similar case involving soldiers from the Bedouin reconnaissance battalion accused of smuggling cigarettes into Gaza cited a less severe national security charge, carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

During a court hearing on Tuesday, Zini raised serious allegations about his detention conditions, saying that he has been denied basic necessities and religious needs.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)