An Associated Press (AP) investigation has revealed that the smuggling of goods into Gaza has skyrocketed since Israel began to restrict everything from basic necessities to wood and x-ray machines flowing into the territory.
The AP investigation used Israeli court documents and interviews with truckers, traders, Palestinians, abd UN and Israeli officials to draw its conclusions. It stated that the middlemen — the traders, drivers, and often Israeli soldiers — are “accused of pocketing millions of dollars”.
Note: The AP article uses the term “Hamas-led government” throughout. Within the Gaza Strip, this is currently true. However, this article uses the term ‘Palestinian government’ throughout, for the same reason that it does not use the term ‘genocidal Likud regime‘ in place of ‘Israeli government’.
This use of ‘Palestinian government’ should not be conflated with the Palestinian Authority governing across the occupied West Bank.
Restrictions and blockades
Israel imposed greater or total restrictions on some goods, including tobacco, entering Gaza as soon as the current phase of the long war began back in 2023. However, the occupier’s history of blockades stretches back decades.
On 2 March 2025, Israel then began a total blockade of all aid and food entering the Strip. Palestinian officials and international experts reported that this cruel sanction caused famine conditions in parts of the territory.
Since then, Israel has continued to limit the flow of goods. In particular, it restricts so-called “dual-use” items like concrete and wooden planks. These, it claims, could be used by Hamas for military purposes.
The Israeli military department which inspects goods entering Gaza is COGAT (the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories). It classes 150 wide-ranging categories of items as dual-use. Some of these are basic necessities like generators and x-ray machines, the latter of which Israel only allows under strict supervision.
The turn to smugglers
The UN and other international aid agencies bring in portions of food and medicine to the strip. However, as Al Jazeera reported, the Israeli genocide has disrupted even the logistics chains supporting those trucks of vital supplies.
Beyond those extra-governmental agencies, Israel has issued just 12 traders with licenses to import commercial goods. However, even for these sanctioned traders, COGAT often bars parts of their shipments, citing their ‘dual-use’.
As such, AP explained that traders often turn to smugglers to meet demand. However, even Palestinian government agencies and hospitals frequently have no choice but to employ smugglers to bring in medicines, equipment, fuel and spare parts. The article stated that:
Two traders who control a large portion of the smuggling scene and an aide to a third told AP they send lists of contraband goods they want to import to “coordinators” — Israeli and Palestinian middlemen in Israel and the West Bank. Coordinators line up merchandise, then arrange a route into Gaza.
Commercial goods and aid mostly go through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, where every truck is inspected. The military also has routes in and out of Gaza for its vehicles. Smugglers use both avenues, bribing soldiers to smooth the way for trucks or carry goods in military vehicles, according to the traders and Israeli court documents.
Profit, inflation and desperation engulf Gaza
Because of the devastation that Israel has caused to Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, smuggling now makes up a large proportion of the Strip’s economy. Several merchants told AP that smuggling makes up around half of their operations. However, those same ‘illicit’ goods bring in 70% of their profits.
An anonymous “major trader” told the outlet that:
You are paying at every step, plus the price of the goods themselves.
Cigarettes are particularly easy to hide, and fetch massive profits. A single pack could cost over $1000 during the three-month total blockade. However, even now it could go for around $140. When AP asked COGAT why it chose to ban tobacco products, the Israeli military body gave no answer.
However, it’s not just non-essentials that have suffered massive inflation due to the smuggling chain. Where before the war a vehicle battery might cost $140, it might now fetch $2,300.
Gaza government response
Mohammad Barbakh, a member of the Palestinian Economy Ministry, stated that the government takes a 20% cut of the price of any smuggled goods the traders report. However, it instead takes 80% if it discovers unreported smuggled goods. However, the Palestinian government hasn’t taxed goods entering legally since October 2023.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, added that none of the funds it collects in this manner go to the military wing. Instead, he stated that they’re used for public services and:
maintaining the continuity of public facilities under the exceptional circumstances in the Gaza Strip.
Part of the inflated price of smuggled goods also goes to pay off Israeli soldiers, along with the warehouse workers and drivers. AP reported that:
The Israeli military said via email that it takes the issue of smuggling “very seriously and works to prevent it.” It said any cases of suspected involvement by Israeli military personnel are “examined and handled in accordance with the law.” But military officials did not answer a list of detailed questions from AP on the roles of soldiers or Gaza’s government in smuggling.
Israeli authorities claim to have dismantled several smuggling rings since last year. However, the smugglers interviewed by AP stated that these made up a mere fraction of the operations running goods into Gaza.
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
