Israel is smuggling narcotics into Gaza, Palestinian tribal council warns

Israel is still smuggling narcotics into Gaza, according to a local authority. The Palestinian tribal and clan council says large amounts of drugs are arriving – including via drone. And they claim is it a deliberate attack on Palestinian youth.

According to grass-roots media page Translating Falasteen:

the Palestinian Tribal and Clan Council warned that the Israeli occupation was facilitating the smuggling of large quantities of narcotics into Gaza, a systematic attempt to target Palestinian youth while food, medicine, and essential aid remain blocked.

Israel running ‘drug distribution networks’

The council said “Israeli-backed militias” were “operating drug distribution networks from Rafah”. The Israeli aims if  to “fracture Gaza’s social fabric”.

The council called the practice “a national betrayal“.

these attempts have intensified, with increasing reports of drugs being smuggled by drones day and night and through aid trucks, as later investigations revealed narcotic pills, including Oxycodone, hidden inside flour bags from U.S.-dispatched aid earlier this year, reinforcing fears of a coordinated effort to destabilize Palestinian society under siege.

 

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Opioids in the flour

Israel has already been accused of mixing drugs into flour intended as aid for a starved population in summer 2025. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was also implicated at the time. Israeli and mercenary forces killed and wounded many Palestinians from GHF’s militarised ‘aid’ points.

New Arab reported on 29 June 2025:

that Oxycodone pills were mixed into bags of flour, with some pills being found inside packages of aid meant for distribution to Palestinians.

The Gaza government media office also condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills linked to GHF flour at the time.

We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags.

The media office warned of a:

possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself.

Middle East Eye explained:

Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients. The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects

GHF maintains that it did not mix drugs into flour:

It said bags of flour delivered to Gaza were commercially produced and not packaged by GHF staff.

GHF has since closed down in Gaza. The firm behind it had opened up new operations as part of the US ‘peace’ plan. They’re always ready to make a quick buck off apartheid and occupation.

Featured image via ABNA