The State Attorney’s Office filed an indictment with the Be’er Sheva District Court against two Bedouin men from the Negev diaspora, Hani Hamidi, 38, and Marwan Ahmidi, 24, after they smuggled drugs and cigarettes into the Gaza Strip using drones that could potentially be used to carry out terrorist acts.
According to the indictment filed by attorney Assaf Bar Yosef of the Southern District Prosecutor’s Office, beginning in December 2024, a widespread phenomenon of smuggling by drones from Israeli territory into the Gaza Strip was identified.
According to the indictment, during this period, more than 170 drone crossings from Israel into the Strip were detected, without any drones being identified as returning to Israeli territory. It is alleged that these drones could fall into the hands of terrorist operatives and be used for operational, intelligence-gathering, and offensive purposes, as Hamas has done in the past.
The indictment further alleges that in May of this year, the defendants conspired with others to export drugs and cigarettes into the Gaza Strip using drones. To carry out the plan, they arrived during the night, together with two other individuals, at an open area near Kibbutz Re’im equipped with two drones. Each drone was loaded with approximately six kilograms of cannabis or hashish, as well as cartons of cigarettes.
“The defendants and the others flew the drones toward the Gaza Strip. One of the drones reached its destination inside the Strip, while the second drone was struck by the IDF after landing inside Gaza," the indictment states.
After carrying out the smuggling operation, the defendants attempted to flee from a police force that was waiting for them near the Goral Junction. According to the indictment, they made a U-turn and attempted to escape the area, until they were arrested after their vehicle was blocked by police forces.
At the same time, another off-road vehicle involved in the incident broke through the roadblock and escaped despite a police pursuit. During a search of the defendants’ vehicle, authorities seized, among other items, a drone controller, drone parts, and a night-vision device that had been stolen from the IDF in 2023.
In the request for detention until the end of legal proceedings filed alongside the indictment, attorney Bar Yosef noted that the acts were committed during a period in which, although a ceasefire was in effect, many IDF forces were still operating inside the Gaza Strip.
The defendants were aware that the entity controlling the Gaza Strip is the Hamas terrorist organization, and that the drones they transferred could reach Hamas or other elements in the Strip and be used to carry out terrorist activities, thereby endangering national security and the lives of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.
The two were charged with offenses including providing means for carrying out a terrorist act, exporting a dangerous drug, possession of a dangerous drug not for personal use, interfering with a police officer in the performance of his duties, and possession of property suspected of being stolen.