An opaque operation transporting goods in critically short supply into Gaza is generating millions of dollars on the black market and pricing the majority of civilians out of life-saving equipment, raising alarm among officials working on the Strip’s reconstruction.
Reports say lorries with Israeli number plates are entering Gaza as part of a process co-ordinated with Israel’s military.
The operation costs a small number of Israeli-approved Gazan importers millions of dollars per lorry in “co-ordination fees”, according to traders in the Gaza Strip who talked to The National and an assessment presented to foreign officials by the Gaza Chamber of Commerce at the Civilian Military Co-ordination Centre (CMCC), a multinational body set up to monitor October’s ceasefire agreement.
The fees are so high because the shipments are of goods that Israel typically labels “dual use” – a category that requires special approval to import, on the grounds that the items could be used for military purposes. This Israeli designation has resulted in a severe lack of vital equipment such as generators, solar panels, welding machines, shelter materials and phones, pushing prices up exponentially.
“The trucks enter Gaza through military co-ordination with the Israeli side and are not subject to inspection [at Israeli crossings],” an employee of a major Gaza importer told The National. “As far as I know, the co-ordination fees are paid to a group of Israeli army officers, and others in the Israeli security apparatus.”
Humanitarian organisations continue to face major obstacles importing such equipment into Gaza, but, as first reported in The Guardian this month, supposedly restricted dual-use items have started appearing in Gaza’s shops at highly inflated prices.
All goods brought in by humanitarian organisations through established mechanisms are subject to searches by Israeli forces at crossing points, often leading to delays and arbitrary blockages, critics say.
All sources The National spoke to about the multimillion dollar shipments of dual-use products said the lorries are not inspected at the crossings and remain closed throughout their passage, with only a quick change of drivers at the border.
Weaponising aid
Israel has been accused of weaponising aid and impeding the work of humanitarian organisations throughout the Gaza war and since the ceasefire in October. Israel denies this and accuses aid organisations of inefficiency, and armed Gazan actors, including Hamas, of looting supplies.
The details of the co-ordination fees, presented to CMCC diplomatic and military officials at the end of last year, raised concern that Israeli military policy is bolstering the black market in the strip, sources who were present at the meeting told The National.
There are also fears that widespread profiteering is hampering the rebuilding of Gaza’s economy, as a new generation of traders rapidly gains monopolies over the market at the expense of the prewar private sector, which has largely collapsed.
The employee of the Gaza importer said their company paid more than $3.7 million in co-ordination fees for one lorry in August last year, which brought in “solar panels, electrical and internet cables, phones, gasoline canisters, motor oil and rare electronic spare parts that were extremely hard to find in Gaza [at the time]”.
The source said the market value of the imported products was about $6.3 million. The delivery included 500 solar panels that were sold for more than $4,000 each, despite having a prewar value of about $180.
They said the fees for other deliveries the importer received ranged from about $2.2 million to $4.7 million per lorry, depending on the value of goods on board.
A Gazan food importer, who has a business in Gaza city, said the co-ordination for importing high-value goods takes place with Israeli “army officers and intelligence personnel through a number of traders in the Gaza Strip”.
“This type of co-ordination is not available to us as food traders. We are considered to be a lower tier than those traders who are permitted such arrangements,” they added.
Sources said there were no more than five traders able to conduct this high-level co-ordination, allowing them to “monopolise” goods.
'Money goes to Israeli military'
Aed Abu Ramadan, head of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, told The National that his organisation counted around 45 lorries entering the strip in this manner from April 2025 until the end of the year. The first lorry, Mr Abu Ramadan said, cost importers about 100 million Israeli shekels (about $30 million), “because things were very scarce and prices were skyrocketing”.
He said it was “obvious this money goes to the Israeli military” because the gates the lorries reportedly pass through are opened and closed based on orders from the Israeli army, unlike crossings used by humanitarian organisations, which are ultimately approved by Israel’s government.
“It could be corruption, a military order or a mixture of both,” he said.
Mr Abu Ramadan called on the international community to pressure Israel to implement transparent ways to import supplies, after more than two years of draconian limits.
“The approval policy as regards dual-use goods is particularly opaque and very selectively applied,” said Shai Grunberg, a spokesperson for Gisha, an Israeli rights group that monitors Israel’s controls on Gaza’s economy.
"Israel uses the approval policy as a mechanism of control, retaining broad discretion over what it chooses to classify as dual-use,” Ms Grunberg said.
“It also could be that Israel’s practice of leveraging the access of goods to Gaza advances political objectives to reward certain actors in Gaza over others,” she added.
A spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli military unit that controls access to Gaza, told The National: “The policy governing the entry of aid into Gaza is implemented in accordance with the policy of the political echelon. This is a uniform policy applicable to all entities co-ordinating the entry of aid, including with regard to dual-use items.”
“Accordingly, and in order to prevent the infiltration of terrorist elements into the aid entry mechanism, a new mechanism for the entry of goods via the private sector in Gaza will be implemented in a gradual and controlled manner.
“Within this framework, a limited number of local merchants has been approved by the defence establishment, subject to specific criteria and thorough security screening,” the spokesperson added.
“It should be clarified that with regard to items defined as dual-use, Israel exercises heightened caution and offers international organisations alternatives that enable the provision of humanitarian aid without allowing the terrorist organisation Hamas to exploit the aid for its own military build-up.”
