{"id":278450,"date":"2026-02-07T05:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T05:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278450\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T05:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T05:21:07","slug":"israel-charges-brother-of-shin-bets-chief-for-smuggling-goods-into-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/278450\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel charges brother of Shin Bet\u2019s chief for smuggling goods into Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors on Thursday filed charges against the brother of the head of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/israel\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Israel<\/a>&#8216;s domestic intelligence agency for offences including &#8220;assisting the enemy in wartime&#8221;, over the alleged smuggling of cigarettes into besieged Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Israel controls the entry of all goods and people into the Palestinian territory, where humanitarian conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which came into effect on October 10.<\/p>\n<p>Bezalel Zini, the brother of Shin Bet chief David Zini, is charged along with other defendants with &#8220;assisting the enemy in wartime, performing transactions in property for terrorist purposes, obtaining something by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/fraud\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fraud<\/a> under aggravated circumstances, and taking bribes&#8221;, the justice ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A central category of prohibited goods smuggled into the Strip was tobacco and cigarettes, which have put a total of hundreds of millions of shekels into Hamas&#8217;s coffers since the start of the war,&#8221; the ministry added in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Bezalel Zini, a reservist in the Israeli military, is suspected of smuggling approximately 14 cartons of cigarettes into Gaza on three occasions, for which he received 365,000 shekels (around $117,400).<\/p>\n<p>Two other defendants were indicted along with Zini on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The smuggling was carried out &#8220;by misleading soldiers at the crossings into the Strip, and by presenting a false situation as if the defendants were entering as part of their military service for security purposes&#8221;, the statement added.<\/p>\n<p>It forms part of a wider smuggling network which the justice ministry described as a &#8220;serious case of organised, systematic, and sophisticated smuggling of various goods into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/gaza-strip\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"gtm-add-suggested-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gaza Strip<\/a> for profit&#8221;, which began in the summer of 2025, when war was still raging in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges against 12 individuals and a company in connection with the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"a-read-more\">Read more<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/middle-east\/20260204-israel-indicts-12-suspects-including-idf-soldiers-for-smuggling-goods-into-gaza\" target=\"_self\" class=\"a-read-more__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Israel indicts 12 suspects, including IDF soldiers, for smuggling goods into Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A justice ministry statement on Wednesday said the smuggled goods were worth millions of shekels and included cartons of cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, car parts and more.<\/p>\n<p>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors on Thursday filed charges against the brother of the head of Israel&#8216;s domestic intelligence agency for offences&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[69,85,46,3799,8702,47,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-278450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-gaza-strip","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","12":"tag-justice","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}