A new problem is plaguing humanitarian aid convoys trying to bring relief to Gazans: attacks by organised mobs looking for cigarettes smuggled inside the shipments.
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Cigarettes are becoming increasingly scarce in Gaza and now typically cost between $25 and $30 each. United Nations and Israeli officials say attacks by groups seeking to sell cigarettes are an obstacle to getting aid into southern Gaza.
Israeli authorities closely monitor everything entering and leaving Gaza. But cigarettes have been able to sneak in for weeks, mainly via the Kerem Shalom crossing into southern Gaza.
Smugglers — mainly in Egypt — have been hiding them in sacks of flour, diapers and even a watermelon donated by the U.N., according to aid agencies and an Israeli military official.
Andrea De Domenico, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem, confirmed that aid officials had “seen UN-branded aid cartons with cigarettes inside.”
Israel’s near-total control of goods entering Gaza amid the war has distorted the enclave’s economy. The price of flour has plummeted because Israel, under intense international pressure, has allowed aid agencies to supply large quantities of it. Other basic goods remain scarcer and more expensive.
Authorities said most of the trucks carrying cigarettes appeared to be coming from Egypt, which diverted trucks arriving from Egyptian territory via Kerem Shalom after Israel captured the Rafah border crossing in early May.
Even as hardships in southern Gaza have worsened, the contents of more than a thousand aid trucks have been stranded for weeks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Israeli officials say. Fearing an attack, aid agencies have been hesitant to send trucks to collect and distribute the goods.
Israel says it has made efforts to ensure UN agencies can collect the goods, including by paving new roads. Aid officials say Israel could do more, including allowing them to expand use of other roads and crossings.
Israeli and U.N. officials said the smugglers were closely coordinated with organized groups inside the territory that have blocked aid trucks with light weapons, clubs and makeshift barricades. The looters often seemed to know exactly where to find the cigarettes hidden inside, De Domenico said.
“They go exactly on the platform” where the cigarettes are, he said.
A cigarette seller in Gaza City said prices could reach as high as $40 a cigarette for the most sought-after brands. Desperate smokers were willing to pay, despite being impoverished after several months of war, he said. The seller, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals, said Hamas forces were still present in the area, but not as police, simply as “mafias.”
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