Behind a recent high-profile indictment involving the brother of Israel’s domestic security chief lies a sprawling and highly lucrative smuggling industry that has quietly expanded during the war. According to experts cited by Haaretz, roughly 20 percent of all tobacco sold illegally in Israel ultimately ends up in the Gaza Strip, where shortages, border restrictions, and soaring prices have transformed cigarettes into a form of hard currency.
The case centers on Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet head David Zini, who has been charged over his alleged involvement in smuggling cigarettes and tobacco products into Gaza. While the family connection has drawn public attention, officials and analysts stress that the case is merely one window into a much broader phenomenon that has grown dramatically over the past two years of fighting.
“This is not a marginal issue or a few bad actors,” said Yigal Wynne, chief executive of the Federation for Intellectual Property, an organization that works with Israeli companies and law enforcement to combat illegal trade. “What we are seeing is an industry.” According to Wynne, the scale of tobacco smuggling attempts intercepted inside Israel has surged since the war began, driven both by increased demand in Gaza and by the expanded movement of trucks under wartime conditions.
Before the war, smuggling was often carried out using private cars or small vehicles. Today, Wynne says, the traffic has shifted to large trucks and commercial containers. “The number of trucks entering Israel and heading toward Gaza has been crazy,” he said, adding that authorities estimate many of them ultimately reach the enclave, even if the precise routes and entry points inside Gaza remain unclear.
The logistics often involve multiple stages. Cigarettes originating in Egypt, Wynne explained, are frequently moved first into the Palestinian Authority, where smugglers feel safer storing and organizing shipments before forwarding them toward Gaza. Other tobacco products are manufactured directly in the West Bank, then transported covertly south. Two locally produced brands, Capital and Imperial, are especially prominent in Gaza, and their factories are located not far from Israel’s Ofer military base near Ramallah.
The economics of the trade explain its persistence. A single 40-foot container of cigarettes can be purchased for roughly $100,000. Once inside Gaza, that same shipment can be resold for as much as $10 million, Wynne said. Even accounting for occasional seizures, the profit margins are so extreme that criminal and militant groups are willing to absorb losses as a cost of doing business.
Dozens of such truckloads are believed to enter Gaza every month. The profits, experts say, do not flow only to individual smugglers but also to organized crime networks and terrorist organizations that rely on illicit trade to finance operations. Tobacco, unlike weapons or drugs, carries relatively lighter legal penalties, making it an attractive commodity for groups seeking high returns with comparatively lower risk.
The smuggling does not stop at cigarettes. Tobacco for hookahs, loose rolling tobacco, and electronic cigarettes are also part of the trade. In some cases, the same networks involved in weapons trafficking across the Egyptian border use drones or other covert means to transport tobacco products alongside arms. “Every terrorist group needs money,” Wynne said. “Combining arms smuggling with tobacco smuggling makes sense for them.”
Price disparities fuel the entire system. In Egypt, a pack of cigarettes can cost the equivalent of $1.60 to $1.90. In Gaza, the same pack may sell for between 40 and 100 shekels, all in cash. Even legally purchased international brands bought cheaply in Egypt can generate significant profits once they reach Gaza, where there is effectively no legal way to import tobacco.
Haaretz has reported that the tobacco boom in Gaza is part of a wider black market created by Israel’s restrictions on goods entering the territory during the war. As with chocolate, meat, fuel, and other basic items, scarcity has inflated prices and incentivized smuggling. Cigarettes, however, stand out because of their high value-to-volume ratio and constant demand.
What is often overlooked, Wynne argues, is that Gaza is only part of the picture. Inside Israel itself, the black market for tobacco is already enormous. An estimated 20 percent of all cigarettes sold in Israel are counterfeit or smuggled, depriving the state of tax revenue and undermining legitimate businesses. The tobacco that ends up in Gaza comes in addition to that domestic black market, not instead of it.
“This is just one area where we are suffering,” Wynne said. “From laundry detergent to medicines, counterfeiting and smuggling are everywhere.” Tobacco, he added, is simply the most visible example because of its connection to security issues and organized crime.
The involvement of Israeli citizens and, in some cases, soldiers in smuggling networks has further complicated enforcement. Haaretz has previously reported on multiple indictments against Israelis accused of moving goods worth millions of shekels into Gaza during the war. These cases highlight how financial incentives can override legal and ethical boundaries even in times of national crisis.
At border crossings such as Rafah, where humanitarian aid trucks queue under international scrutiny, the contrast between regulated assistance and illicit trade is stark. While aid deliveries are subject to inspections and political debate, smuggled goods move through shadow networks that adapt quickly to enforcement measures.
For Israeli authorities, the challenge is multidimensional. Tobacco smuggling undermines public health policy, drains tax revenues, and strengthens criminal and militant groups. Yet the penalties remain relatively light, and enforcement resources are stretched thin by the broader demands of wartime security.
The indictment of Bezalel Zini has brought renewed attention to the issue, but experts caution against viewing it as an isolated scandal. Instead, they see it as a symptom of a deeply entrenched system that thrives on conflict, scarcity, and uneven enforcement.
As the war continues, so too does the flow of cigarettes, cash, and influence across borders both visible and hidden. Until the underlying economic incentives are addressed and enforcement is significantly strengthened, experts warn that Gaza will remain a lucrative end market for Israel’s tobacco smuggling boom, and the black market will continue to blur the lines between crime, commerce, and conflict.
