AP Exclusive: How banned goods are smuggled into Gaza and millions of dollars change hands

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : Besides the U.N. and other humanitarian groups bringing in aid, Israel has given 12 senior traders in Gaza permits to import commercial goods.
50% : Payments go to many players, including drivers and warehouse workers in Israel and Gaza, said one major trader.
48% : Israel restricts quantities of some goods and bans others outright.
48% : Smuggling has become routine," one trader said, noting that some in Israel's military are willing to help -- for a price.
48% : Two senior traders and an aide to a third told AP they send lists of contraband goods they want to import to "coordinators" -- Israeli and Palestinian middlemen in Israel and the West Bank.
48% : All day long, we use cardboard to light a fire, or we splash water on the children because of the heat." ____ Associated Press journalists Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza; Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed.
45% : Two senior officials in the Hamas administration said -- on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists -- the money helps fund social services and pay salaries for the tens of thousands employed in Gaza's civil service and police force.
43% : In court documents, Israeli prosecutors pointed to one mysterious smuggler known only as Abu Bassel who they said has "numerous connections within the Israel Police.
42% : Since the war began, Israel has tightly controlled all entry of food, aid and goods into the Gaza Strip, including a total aid blockade that shut off entry entirely for nearly three months last year, pushing parts of the territory into famine.
42% : The price per pack, residents say, has hit as much as $140 recently, and over $1,000 during Israel's total blockade.
41% : AP also interviewed four Palestinian officials, two on condition of anonymity because of worries about retribution from Israel, Hamas or merchants; two U.N. officials, on condition of anonymity over concern for their jobs; and a dozen Palestinian residents, who spoke about how they get everyday items and their skyrocketing costs.
41% : But he said authorities don't refer to their cut as "taxes" and that they haven't taxed goods entering legally since the war's start.
38% : AP found a rush from all sides to profit off the tight restrictions imposed by Israel on Gaza and its 2 million residents, most of whom have been displaced by the war.
38% : According to a series of indictments against them and others, they're accused of bribing reserve soldiers in Gaza, chief among them Bezalel Zini, brother of the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's powerful domestic security agency.
35% : CAIRO (AP) -- Palestinians face inflated prices for groceries and batteries, hospitals have turned to smugglers for medicine and equipment, and Israeli soldiers and other middlemen are accused of pocketing millions of dollars as the smuggling of goods restricted by Israel into the Gaza Strip has boomed, according to an Associated Press investigation based on court documents and interviews with traders, truckers and officials.
35% : Cigarettes and tobacco -- banned from entry to Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 -- rake in the biggest profits for smugglers and merchants, officials and residents say.

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