Updated June 2, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.*
GAZA — While Israeli authorities have been enforcing a suffocating blockade on the Gaza Strip, preventing even a single grain of wheat from entering for months — causing widespread famine among the population — the Israeli army is turning a blind eye to the smuggling of cigarettes and hookah tobacco, which is smuggled across the border by unmanned drones.
Recently, the Israeli army announced the arrest of soldiers and Bedouin civilians suspected of being involved in smuggling cigarettes and drugs into the Gaza Strip, “given the substantial profits from smuggling these goods into the area.”
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
Starting in March 2025, Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza and completely closed all crossings, halting the entry of food aid and essential goods. Local markets in Gaza began to experience severe food shortages, while cigarettes and hookah tobacco continued to flow in through illicit means and were sold openly. [Ed. Note: After two and a half months of a food blockade, there was a limited and problematic resumption of food aid distribution in late May.]
Delivery by drone
The investigation’s author, through field monitoring and documented testimonies, found that drones originating from inside Israel frequently land in the eastern regions of Rafah Governorate in southern Gaza, loaded with boxes of cigarettes — each box containing ten packs and each pack holding 20 cigarettes.
The drones land near the border fence, where known smugglers in Gaza approach, retrieve the boxes and leave. Israeli forces then bomb the drone after it has been emptied — an indication of collusion or deliberate neglect by the Israeli army.
These drones carry various global cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Imperial and Winston, as well as Al Fakher hookah tobacco, and they are sold at exorbitant prices due to limited availability in Gaza markets. According to the investigation, a single cigarette can cost up to 100 shekels (about $30) when smuggling declines, while a gram of Al Fakher tobacco sells for 50 shekels ($15).
Fortunes from smuggling
The trade in smuggled cigarettes has boomed since the outbreak of war and some traders have amassed immense wealth. Prices have skyrocketed absurdly, with a single cigarette rising from 1 shekel to 1000 shekels at the height of the blockade.
Cigarettes and hookah tobacco used to enter Gaza legally through the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, but since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has stopped allowing any such products into the Strip.
It is not new for tobacco companies to exploit wartime conditions and weak oversight to expand their markets and reap huge profits in conflict zones. “The ways tobacco companies have benefited from wars since World War I are well documented… This approach continues today, as tobacco companies participate in conflicts through various forms (distributing tobacco and nicotine products to soldiers, marketing products in countries weakened by conflict, engaging in illicit trade and more),” according to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control website.
The companies that typically benefit the most are the four major tobacco firms:
Philip Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Imperial Brands.
Smoking in Palestine by the numbers
Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics from 2022 — the last data available before the war — indicate that 33.5% of the population aged 18–69 use at least one tobacco product. The figures show that 55.1% of men smoke, compared to 12.1% of women.
Young people represent the largest group of smokers, with ages 18-29 making up 40% of the total smokers, placing Palestine among the highest smoking rates in the Middle East. The report also shows that two-thirds of the population are exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes (64%), in transportation (66%) and in workplaces (58%).
The Ministry of Health confirmed that tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death, killing over 8 million people annually worldwide and causing the death of half of all long-term smokers.
Smuggling under the cover of airstrikes
Suleiman Jamal, a resident of the eastern areas of Rafah, said: “I saw with my own eyes a drone land about 300 meters from the border fence, carrying more than five boxes of cigarettes. Within minutes, well-known smugglers arrived, took the boxes and left. Moments later, the Israeli air force bombed the drone.”
He added that these incidents are recurring and the known smugglers operate without any interference or monitoring, as if there’s implicit coordination or deliberate leniency. He confirmed seeing an Israeli aircraft bomb a young man — who was not one of the smugglers — when he tried to approach a drone after it landed, killing him instantly.
Suleiman’s testimony suggests that the Israeli army does not allow anyone but the smugglers to access the drones carrying cigarettes, reinforcing the possibility of collusion.
Mohammed Qudeih, another resident of the eastern areas, confirmed seeing drones land twice a week carrying cigarettes, unloading without being targeted by Israeli aircraft or border forces. He added: “No ordinary citizen dares approach the drones or the border area. Anyone who does is killed instantly, as happened with a young man from the area who was shot dead as soon as he neared a drone.”
He noted that the smugglers know the drone landing schedule in advance, arrive at the location hours before, wait for the landing, run across open ground to collect the goods and leave the drone behind.
Israeli soldiers arrested
About a month after the investigation’s author documented drone smuggling operations from Israel into Gaza, Israeli authorities arrested several army soldiers and civilians on May 20 on suspicion of smuggling goods into the Strip.
According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11, the suspects — soldiers and Bedouin civilians from the Negev region — had planned to smuggle hundreds of cigarette cartons and large quantities of drugs via aid trucks entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The Israeli Public Prosecution also filed indictments against three Arab Israelis after security forces arrested them on suspicion of smuggling drugs into Gaza using drones.
Prices fluctuate constantly, depending on how successful and intense the smuggling routes are.
In April, officers from the Israeli police, Shin Bet (General Security Service) and army arrested three Negev residents — Mohammed Al-Sarahi, Sharif Abu Ghardoud and Younes Abu Ghardoud — according to the Times of Israel. They are accused of multiple drug and cigarette smuggling operations from Israel into Gaza, leaving the drones inside the Strip.
Plenty of cigarettes, despite hunger
Despite widespread destruction and severe food shortages, cigarette and hookah tobacco stalls flood the streets of Gaza — often outnumbering food vendors.
At the entrance of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a vendor uses a solar-powered speaker to advertise the availability of various cigarette brands. Marlboro, Imperial and Winston cigarettes are exchanged in plain sight, alongside hookah tobacco hidden in tomato paste cans or packed in locally known “Arab” tobacco. All of these enter the Strip through smuggling.
Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!
Why this article • On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, May 31 (an annual event spearheaded by the World Health Organization to raise awareness about the health risks of tobacco use and to advocate for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption), the Lebanon-based journalism platform Daraj has published a series of four investigations exposing the activities of major tobacco companies in conflict zones.
These reports shed light on the often-overlooked consequences of corporate practices on vulnerable communities and public health in regions already grappling with instability. This is one of the stories, translated from Arabic into English by Worldcrunch. — Irene Caselli (read more about the Worldcrunch method here)
Prices fluctuate constantly, depending on how successful and intense the smuggling routes are. At times, a cigarette sells for 100 shekels and at others, the price drops to 10 shekels. Before the war, the price did not exceed one shekel.
Vendor Bayan Saeed said that although products are available, sales are weak. “High prices have limited customers to major traders or the wealthy,” he said. He explained that cigarettes are brought in by well-known smugglers who are never stopped and payments are made in cash upon delivery.
Saeed noted that these smugglers’ circumstances have changed during the war: where they used to arrive on motorcycles in the early days, they now come in luxury Jeep vehicles — evidence of the rapid wealth generated from smuggling.
The shocking paradox is that Gaza’s residents are deprived of the most basic necessities like food and medicine, while cigarettes and hookah tobacco easily slip through the skies to be sold at outrageous prices.
This reality raises pressing questions about Israel’s role in this contradiction. Why is humanitarian aid blocked while tobacco is allowed in? What are the true motives behind this selective leniency?
*Updated June 2, 2025 with enriched media.
