BREAKING NEWS

Hamas accuses Israel of encouraging Gaza drug trade

Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip accused Israel of encouraging the drug trade in the coastal enclave, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported Wednesday.
Director of the anti-drugs police in northern Gaza Ashraf al-Bayari said Israel deliberately sends large quantities of drugs to the Gaza Strip "in order to blackmail youths and trick them into becoming collaborators with Israeli intelligence," the agency said.
According to Ma'an, Hamas policemen arrested a drug dealer on Sunday evening in the refugee camp of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip who was in possession of 1,000 ecstasy pills.
The pills were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Israel via the Erez crossing, the Hamas authorities claimed.