State prosecutors on Sunday filed an indictment against four defendants accused of repeatedly trying to smuggle prohibited goods from Israel into the Gaza Strip during the war. The new case adds to a widening cluster of wartime Gaza-smuggling prosecutions that Israeli authorities say funneled high-value goods toward Hamas-controlled territory for enormous profit.
According to the indictment, the four defendants – Ayman Danaf, Muhammad Ghrifat, Omar Ghrifat, and Ali Ghrifat – operated in an organized, repeated pattern to move trucks loaded with prohibited goods into Gaza outside the authorized inspection and transfer mechanism.
Prosecutors alleged the goods included cigarettes, tobacco, cellphones, solar panels, batteries, generators, computers, spotlights, electric bicycles, and other products, and said the defendants stood to make millions of shekels per truck.
Prosecutors also accused the defendants, each according to his alleged role, of attempted assistance to the enemy during wartime, attempted prohibited dealings in property for terror purposes, and attempted aggravated fraud.
The indictment says they acted for financial gain while aware of the possibility that the goods would reach Hamas operatives and that this would, to a near certainty, strengthen the enemy economically during the war.
Prosecutors told the court that some of the alleged attempts were foiled when trucks were seized at or near the crossings, but argued that this did not deter the defendants, who allegedly kept trying to move banned goods into Gaza.
The state further said it has strong evidence, including confessions by three of the defendants, testimony from other witnesses, such as truck drivers and crossing personnel, and truck seizures conducted by security and customs officials.
Details of the indictment
The indictment describes several separate episodes. In one alleged August 2025 attempt, prosecutors say one defendant organized two trucks carrying large quantities of cigarettes, tobacco, and related products and even paid an advance to men presented to him as military personnel who were supposedly meant to get the trucks through unchecked; the operation was ultimately thwarted.
In another, prosecutors say thousands of cellphones, millions of cigarettes, hundreds of kilograms of tobacco, batteries, solar equipment, and vehicle-related items were loaded onto two trucks that were later seized near the Kissufim Crossing. A further January 2026 episode involved three trucks carrying cigarettes, generators, batteries, electric vehicles, gas systems, mobile phones, SIM cards, and other equipment, again allegedly intended for Gaza.
The case also contains a financial crime layer. Prosecutors alleged that some defendants derived substantial illegal profits from broader smuggling activity during 2025, failed to report their income to tax authorities, and used the proceeds, leading to additional charges of money laundering and tax-related deceit.
The indictment says one defendant allegedly profited NIS 500,000, another NIS 1.5 million, and a third $1,000.
In asking for detention through trial, the state stressed both danger and flight risk, arguing that the alleged offenses are security crimes that create a statutory detention ground and that the defendants cannot be trusted with any alternative arrangement.
Prosecutors also noted that three of the four are already tied to another pending indictment in the Lod District Court over four additional smuggling operations that allegedly succeeded in transferring trucks of prohibited goods into Gaza.
This is not the first wartime-smuggling case to reach indictment.
In early February, prosecutors filed a major indictment against 12 defendants in a separate Gaza-smuggling affair, alleging that a network of reservists and civilians moved millions of shekels’ worth of prohibited goods – including cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, telecommunications cables, and car parts – into the Strip, in a scheme the state said strengthened Hamas’s economic position.
That earlier case later widened further with the separate indictment of Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief David Zini, who was charged alongside two other men with aiding the enemy during wartime, prohibited dealings in property for terror purposes, aggravated fraud, and bribery, in a case centered largely on alleged cigarette smuggling during reserve service inside Gaza.
The new indictment resembles those earlier cases in several ways: prosecutors again portray the smuggling as systematic rather than opportunistic, again focus on cigarettes and other high-demand goods that Hamas could seize, tax, or resell, and again argue that even goods not inherently weapons-related can materially strengthen the enemy by bolstering its economic survival and control inside Gaza.
The new case is distinct, however, in centering a smaller four-defendant group and in heavily emphasizing repeated attempted truck-based transfers through crossings or nearby areas, rather than only completed deliveries.