Bezalel Zini accused of role in taking goods into the occupied Palestinian territory during an Israeli blockade
The brother of Israel’s internal security chief has been charged with “assisting the enemy in wartime” for his alleged role in a smuggling network taking cigarettes and other goods into Gaza during an Israeli blockade of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Bezalel Zini was one of more than 10 people charged in relation to the alleged network. His brother, David Zini, is the head of the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency. He was appointed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, last May and began the job in October.
Israel has long controlled all goods going into Gaza and enforced a total blockade at the height of the war that led to widespread famine. Smuggling was rife under blockade, and cigarettes were a luxury for the very few. At the peak of the conflict, a single cigarette could sell for $15 (£11) and a carton of 50 packets could cost nearly $15,000 (£11,060).
It is alleged that some Israeli soldiers taking part in the devastation of Gaza, in which more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, were also profiting from a campaign that is considered by a UN independent commission and human rights organisations to be a genocide.
