Documentation from Gaza reveals: This is how smuggling from Egypt into the Strip continues — unimpeded
In a video that arrived from Gaza, a drone is seen arriving from the Egyptian border, landing and releasing a payload. Sources in Gaza told N12: Weapons are also being smuggled using the drones, and the phenomenon has become an industry that generates huge sums.
Documentation distributed on Saturday shows smuggling into the Strip using drones from Egypt. In addition to the Egyptian border, drones also arrive from the direction of the Negev and unload payloads in the Strip. There is a security concern that Hamas is using the smuggling to rearm and prepare for future confrontations.
A source in Gaza told N12: "Everything that enters this way is sold for very high sums." The shortage of goods in the Strip has turned the smuggling route into a business that generates significant revenue, operated by organized networks connecting Gaza to external elements.
In the video, a drone is seen arriving from the Egyptian border, landing in the Strip's territory and releasing a payload, which according to reports contained drugs. Sources in the Strip told N12 that this is not an isolated phenomenon: drones continue to be used to smuggle weapons and other materials from Egypt to Gaza, alongside another smuggling route from the direction of the Negev. The drone threat from the Egyptian border takes on a particularly serious security significance due to the potential for smuggling weapons into the Strip.
While Hamas stands by its refusal to disarm and continues to stall, the flow of weapons into Gaza by air turns the phenomenon into much more than a simple smuggling problem. It raises a real concern that Hamas seeks to use the time to rearm, restore damaged capabilities, and prepare for the next conflict. Behind the drones crossing the border, according to sources in the Strip, operates an organized smuggling industry that connects elements inside Gaza to networks outside it. "A whole market has been created here around the smuggling," one source added. "There are Gazans who work with organized smuggling groups outside the Strip, and they make a lot of money from it. The rarer the goods and the greater the risk, the higher the price inside Gaza and the greater the profit."
Egypt is not the only source of smuggling. Sources in the Strip point to another route that continues to operate from the direction of the Negev. "This is an organized activity that has a network of elements in the Strip and outside it behind it. You need to understand that not everything arrives from Egypt," another source clarified. "We also know of drones that arrive from the direction of the Negev and transfer drugs into the Strip. There are connections between elements in the Negev and people inside Gaza, and these smuggling operations have become a business that generates huge sums."
