While Israeli authorities impose a suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip and prevent the entry of a single grain of wheat, causing famine among the population, the Israeli army turns a blind eye to cigarette and tobacco smuggling operations. These operations are active and follow suspicious routes, carried out across the border by unmanned drones.
Recently, the Israeli army announced the arrest of soldiers and Bedouin citizens suspected of involvement in smuggling cigarettes and drugs into Gaza, “due to the large profits from smuggling these goods into the Strip.”
Since March 2025, Israel has tightened its siege on Gaza and completely closed all crossings, leading to a halt in the entry of food aid and essential goods. Local markets in Gaza have witnessed a severe shortage of food items, while cigarettes and tobacco continue to flow through covert means and are sold openly.
This investigation is part of a project on the activities of tobacco companies in conflict zones and their impact, published on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day. Daraj is releasing a series of four investigations focusing on the activities of major tobacco companies in conflict areas, with special attention to Gaza and Sudan. The series aims to expose the practices of these companies and how they exploit difficult humanitarian conditions to make profits at the expense of the health of the population.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that humanitarian operations inside the Strip face significant obstacles due to ongoing military operations and a full ban on the entry of food aid and commercial goods for more than eight weeks. The office noted that humanitarian partners are making maximum efforts to distribute the limited remaining supplies.
According to a UN report issued at the end of April, 16 community kitchens stopped operating during the past weekend despite attempts to reduce quantities and modify menus due to the depletion of essential materials. Additional kitchens are expected to close in the coming days for the same reason. The World Food Program announced the complete depletion of its stocks inside the Strip, threatening to close the remaining kitchens within a few days.
Cigarettes Smuggled via Drones
The investigator, through field monitoring and documented testimonies, found that drones coming from inside Israel frequently land in the eastern areas of Rafah governorate, southern Gaza Strip, carrying boxes containing cigarettes. Each box contains ten packs, and each pack contains 20 cigarettes.
The drones land near the border fence, where known smugglers inside the Strip approach, take the boxes, and leave. The occupation forces then bomb the drone after it unloads, indicating clear collusion or deliberate overlooking by the Israeli army.
These drones carry various global cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Imperial, and Winston, in addition to Al Fakher tobacco, sold at exorbitant prices due to the difficulty of accessing them in Gaza markets. According to the investigator’s observation, the price of a single cigarette sometimes reaches 100 shekels (about 30 dollars) when smuggling declines, while one gram of Al Fakher tobacco is sold for 50 shekels (15 dollars).
Fortunes from Smuggling
The trade in smuggled cigarettes has noticeably flourished since the outbreak of the war, with some traders amassing huge fortunes from this activity. Prices have skyrocketed insanely, with the price of a single cigarette rising from one shekel to 1,000 shekels at the height of the siege.
Previously, cigarettes and shisha tobacco used to enter Gaza officially through the Rafah land crossing with Egypt and the Karam Abu Salem crossing with Israel. However, since October 7, 2023, Israel has stopped the entry of any such products into the Strip.
It is nothing new for tobacco companies to exploit the conditions of war and weak oversight to expand their markets and reap huge profits from conflict zones. “The ways in which tobacco companies have benefited from wars since World War I are well documented… and this approach continues to this day. The involvement of tobacco companies in conflicts has taken many forms (distributing tobacco and nicotine products to soldiers, promoting products in countries weakened by conflict, engaging in illicit trade, and more),” according to the website of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The companies that usually benefit the most are the four major ones:
Philip Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International (JTI), and Imperial Brands.
Smoking in Palestine by the Numbers
Statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health for 2022—the latest data before the war—indicate that 33.5 percent of the population aged 18 to 69 use at least one tobacco product. The figures show that the rate of male smokers reached 55.1 percent, compared to 12.1 percent among females.
Young people constitute the largest group of smokers, representing 40 percent of those between 18 and 29 years old, making Palestine among the highest countries in the Middle East in terms of smoking rates.
The report also shows that two-thirds of the population are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes (64 percent), 66 percent while using public transportation, and 58 percent in workplaces. The Ministry of Health confirmed that tobacco use is among the leading preventable causes of death, killing more than 8 million people worldwide annually and causing the death of half of long-term smokers.
Smuggling Under the Cover of Bombardment
Suleiman Jamal, a resident of the eastern areas of Rafah city, says: “I saw with my own eyes a drone landing about 300 meters from the border fence, carrying more than five boxes of cigarettes. Within minutes, known smugglers came, took the boxes, and left the area. Minutes later, the Israeli air force bombed the drone.”
He adds that these incidents are repeated, and the known smugglers are not subject to any harassment or oversight; they complete their operations without interference, as if there is implicit coordination or deliberate leniency with them. He confirms that he saw an Israeli aircraft bomb a young man who was not one of the smugglers when he tried to reach a drone after it landed; he was killed instantly.
From Suleiman’s testimony, it appears that the Israeli army does not allow anyone other than the smugglers to reach the drones loaded with cigarettes, which reinforces the hypothesis of coordination between them.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Qudeih, a resident of the eastern areas, confirmed seeing drones land twice a week loaded with cigarettes, unloading their cargo without being attacked by Israeli aircraft or border forces. He added: “No ordinary resident dares to approach the drones or that border area; whoever does is killed immediately, as happened with a young man from the area who was killed as soon as he approached a drone.”
He pointed out that the smugglers know the timing of the drones’ landings in advance, so they are present at the site hours before their arrival, waiting for the landing, then run in the open field to collect the goods and leave the drone in place.
Arrest of Israeli Soldiers
About a month after the investigator documented smuggling operations via drones from inside Israel to Gaza, Israeli authorities on May 20 arrested several Israeli army soldiers and civilians on suspicion of involvement in smuggling goods into the Strip.
According to the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority KAN 11, the suspects are soldiers and Bedouin civilians from the Negev, who planned to smuggle hundreds of packs of cigarettes and large quantities of drugs via aid trucks entering Gaza from the Karam Abu Salem crossing.
The Israeli Public Prosecution also filed an indictment against three Arab Israelis after security forces arrested them on suspicion of smuggling drugs into Gaza using drones.
In April, officers from the police, the General Security Service (Shin Bet), and the Israeli army arrested three residents of the Negev—Mohamed Al-Sarahin, Sharif Abu Gardoud, and Younes Abu Gardoud, according to the Times of Israel. They are accused of multiple smuggling operations of drugs and cigarettes from Israel to Gaza, leaving the drones inside the Strip.
Markets Filled with Cigarettes Despite Siege and Hunger
Despite widespread destruction and food scarcity, stalls selling cigarettes and shisha tobacco crowd the streets of Gaza, even outnumbering food stalls.
At the entrance to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a vendor’s voice blares from a solar-powered speaker, announcing the availability of various cigarette brands. Brands like Marlboro, Imperial, and Winston are seen everywhere, alongside shisha tobacco hidden inside tomato paste cans or packed as locally known “Arabi” tobacco. All of these enter the Strip through smuggling.
Prices fluctuate constantly, depending on the effectiveness and intensity of smuggling routes. Sometimes, a single cigarette sells for 100 shekels, while at other times it drops to 10 shekels. Before the war, its price did not exceed one shekel.
Bayan Saeed, one of the vendors, says that sales are weak despite the availability of goods. He adds: “High prices have limited customers to major traders or only the wealthy.” He explains that cigarettes reach them through known smugglers who are not harassed by anyone, and payment is made in cash upon delivery.
Saeed notes that the situation of these smugglers has changed during the war; while they used to come to him on motorcycles in the early days, they now arrive in luxury “Jeep” vehicles, indicating the rapid wealth generated by the smuggling trade.
The shocking paradox is that Gaza’s residents are deprived of the most basic necessities of life—food and medicine—while cigarettes and shisha tobacco slip in easily by air and are sold at astronomical prices. This reality raises critical questions about the Israeli role in this contradiction: Why is the entry of humanitarian aid prevented while tobacco is allowed through? What are the real objectives behind this selective facilitation?
The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath supported Daraj’s work in tobacco investigations, but the collection, interpretation, and presentation of information is the sole responsibility of Daraj.
