JERUSALEM: Prosecutors on Wednesday filed charges against 12 Israeli suspects including reservist soldiers for offenses including “assisting the enemy in wartime,” over the alleged smuggling of prohibited goods into war-shattered Gaza.

Israel controls the entry of all goods and people into the besieged Palestinian territory, where humanitarian conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which came into effect on October 10.

A Justice Ministry statement said the smuggled goods were worth millions of Israeli shekels and included cartons of cigarettes, iPhones, batteries, communication cables, car parts and more.

It described the operation as a “serious case of organized, systematic, and sophisticated smuggling of various goods into the Gaza Strip for profit,” which began in the summer of 2025, when war was still raging in Gaza.

The Justice Ministry statement said charges had been filed against 12 individuals and one company.

A joint statement from the police and Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency confirmed they had “arrested several Israeli citizens and Gaza Strip residents who smuggled goods prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip.”

It said those arrested included reservists in the Israeli military.

The statement added that the suspects had been “willfully ignoring the direct contribution of this activity to the strengthening of terrorist organizations in the Strip,” notably Hamas.

“This morning (Wednesday), the Southern District Prosecutor’s Office filed indictments against 12 of the suspects for offenses including assisting the enemy in wartime, performing actions with property for terrorist purposes, obtaining something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, bribery offenses, and economic offenses,” it added.

Israeli media reported that the brother of Israel’s Shin Bet chief, David Zini, was allegedly linked to smuggling cigarettes into Gaza.

Reports said that Bezalel Zini was expected to be indicted on Thursday.