Senior IDF officials are warning of an expected expansion in smuggling into the Gaza Strip, as police and investigators move toward filing indictments in a wide-ranging case involving an alleged civilian and military smuggling network.
More than 15 Israelis are suspected in the affair, according to officials familiar with the investigation. Among them is a relative of Shin Bet head David Zini, though authorities stress that the family member is not suspected of any wrongdoing.
The case has intensified scrutiny of alleged involvement by IDF soldiers in smuggling goods into Gaza during wartime. Senior officers are urging prosecutors to pursue far harsher charges — including offenses tantamount to treason — against those involved, citing the scale of expected reconstruction projects in Gaza and what they describe as insufficient deterrence.
The warnings follow a separate investigation involving two soldiers from the IDF’s Bedouin reconnaissance battalion. The military prosecution recently filed an indictment against an officer serving as a company commander and a soldier under his command, accusing them of smuggling thousands of cigarette packs into Gaza in exchange for cash.
According to the indictment, the two are suspected of smuggling 4,496 packs of cigarettes into Gaza in May 2025 in return for 269,000 shekels ($72,000) paid in cash by a Palestinian trader who received the goods. The entry of tobacco into Gaza has been banned since the start of the war, driving prices for smuggled cigarettes to several times their original value.
Following an intelligence-based investigation, the two soldiers were arrested. Investigators say they attempted to obstruct the probe, and that one of them refused a police order near the southern city of Rahat to remove the magazine from his weapon.
After prolonged internal deliberations, the military prosecution opted to moderate the charges. The indictment includes offenses such as exceeding authority in a manner endangering state security, possession of smuggled goods under aggravated circumstances, obstruction of justice, interference with a police officer in the line of duty, fraud and breach of trust, and conduct unbecoming. The two deny the charges and are currently standing trial before a military court.
IDF officials familiar with the case criticized the indictment as overly lenient. They said the prosecution treated the alleged offenses as if they occurred during a period of calm, rather than during an active war, when Hamas is in urgent need of financial resources to rebuild and rearm.
“If this is not treason, then what is treason?” one senior IDF officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The suspects knew full well that Hamas requires every shekel to strengthen itself, recover and attack soldiers.”
IDF legal experts said that even if the defendants are convicted, the charges are likely to result in only a few years of prison time, possibly as little as two years. They noted that courts often take into account combat service and wartime contributions when sentencing.
Senior IDF officers said the issue extends far beyond a single case, warning of a growing phenomenon driven by conditions along the Gaza border. Soldiers and officers deployed along the buffer zone and near the so-called yellow line are focused on combat missions, including countering Hamas activity, destroying tunnels and demolishing structures.
At the same time, dozens of civilian vehicles — including pickup trucks and construction vehicles operated by contractors — enter the area daily to build IDF outposts, with what officers describe as minimal oversight or physical separation from Gaza.
Officials also warned of vulnerabilities in the aid system. Up to 600 supply trucks enter Gaza daily through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and soldiers stationed in the area have the authority to stop vehicles for brief inspections. Senior IDF officers cautioned that, under current conditions, goods — and even weapons — could be diverted with relative ease into areas controlled by Hamas.
“There is simply no time or manpower for battalion or brigade commanders to properly supervise this,” one company commander said. “The area is wide open.”
In closed-door discussions, senior IDF officials warned that the most significant breaches have yet to be exploited. More than 70% of Gaza’s urban areas have been destroyed, and the territory is expected to undergo massive reconstruction for its roughly 2 million residents. Officials described future contracts worth hundreds of billions of shekels in what they called a vast, dangerous war zone.
According to IDF estimates, a truck carrying goods worth about 100,000 shekels ($27,000) could fetch up to 500,000 shekels ($135,000) inside Gaza. Intelligence officials recently assessed that Hamas has retained between 400 million shekels and 1 billion shekels in cash reserves, much of it hidden in tunnels since the start of the war.
That budget has grown, officials said, due to taxes Hamas collects on supplies entering Gaza. About 4,200 large aid trucks enter the territory each week — four times the population’s basic needs, according to United Nations figures cited by officials.
Despite the widespread destruction, Gaza’s markets and some banks have begun operating again, providing liquidity for construction materials that the territory — and Hamas in particular — seeks to acquire.
“Authorities must prepare, at the national level, for real oversight of what enters Gaza,” senior IDF officers said. “If 600 trucks a day cannot be properly inspected now, the situation will be far worse when thousands of trucks carrying cement, concrete and steel begin entering for reconstruction — even before any reopening of the Rafah crossing without meaningful supervision.”
In a statement, the IDF said it views such cases with “the utmost severity.”
“A joint investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division, police and the Tax Authority was opened,” the statement said, confirming the arrest of a captain and a soldier in active service. “Following completion of the investigation and examination of the findings, the military prosecution filed an indictment against the two defendants for offenses centered on smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip in exchange for hundreds of thousands of shekels. By decision of the military court, the defendants remain in custody and evidentiary hearings are underway.”