Through Drugs: This Is How ‘Israel’ Is Trying to Recruit Agents in Gaza by Creating an Addicted Society

After weeks of waiting, Hamaset Khalil, 31, was shocked when she discovered unknown pills hidden inside a bag of flour she had struggled to obtain from the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”

The siege-induced famine in Gaza has deprived this young woman—and hundreds of thousands like her—of the most basic necessities, including bread. But the real shock came when the pills inside the flour bag were found to be drugs.

Dug Pills

Khalil told Al-Estiklal that she barely managed to get the flour from an organization run by American and Israeli Occupation forces in southern Gaza and struggled to carry it to her tent in the central area.

She said that, like thousands of Gazans, she was shot at by the same forces minutes after receiving the aid, adding to the shock of discovering strange pills inside the flour bag.

“I thought I had saved my three children from hunger, but after seeing the pills, I didn’t use the flour at all. Thankfully, I found them before anyone ate anything,” she said.

Since late June 2025, many Palestinians have shared photos of drug pills found in flour bags, sparking fear, rejection, and careful inspection of the scarce aid they receive from this organization.

Gaza has been facing a catastrophic crisis since “Israel” closed the crossings on March 2, 2025, blocking food, medicine, and aid, which led to widespread famine.

The Gaza government’s media office confirmed finding several pills inside flour bags distributed by the organization.

Officials documented four testimonies from civilians who said they found prescription-only medication mixed with food supplies.

In a statement on June 27, the office condemned the discovery of narcotic pills inside flour bags coming from the those “death traps” — American-Israeli aid centers — calling it a horrific crime targeting civilian health and social fabric.

The pills were identified as Oxycodone, a powerful painkiller often prescribed for chronic pain, but potentially lethal if misused, especially in a community already suffering from war, hunger, and displacement.

A doctor told Al-Estiklal that high doses of these opioids can cause addiction, lower blood pressure, and even respiratory failure.

The media office warned that some drugs might have been deliberately ground or dissolved into the flour itself, making the crime even more severe and a direct attack on public health.

The Israeli Occupation was held fully responsible for this heinous act aimed at spreading addiction and destroying Palestinian society from within — part of a systematic policy that extends the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

The use of drugs as a “soft weapon” in this dirty war, smuggled through aid under siege conditions, is deemed a war crime and a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

The office urged Palestinians to avoid these dangerous centers, which serve as death traps and mass entrapment, and called for thorough inspections of food aid coming from this suspicious organization.

Within just one month of their establishment, these centers caused over 549 deaths, injured more than 4,000, and left dozens of starving civilians missing, creating an unprecedented bloodshed in humanitarian work history, the statement added.

The government media office released a new photo on July 2 showing narcotic pills found by a Palestinian man in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, inside a flour bag from American-Israeli aid.

Spreading Addiction

Many Gaza experts and doctors have warned that the Israeli Occupation is deliberately poisoning the population to trigger widespread addiction amid the famine.

Human rights organizations condemned the lack of oversight over the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and called for its immediate suspension.

A coalition of 15 legal and rights groups warned that the foundation’s “actions” could amount to complicity in crimes under international law, including war crimes and genocide.

As the famine worsens, reports of drug-contaminated food have sparked international outrage and renewed calls for independent or UN humanitarian oversight in Gaza.

Since the start of the Israeli assault, security warnings have circulated about the Israeli Occupation’s attempt to flood Gaza with drugs to create an addicted population and sow chaos, especially as Hamas struggles to maintain control following the assassination of police and security forces.

In a July 6, 2025 article, Maariv highlighted “Israel’s effort to form militias from drug dealers and addicts to guard the American aid distribution centers.”

This points to the involvement of the foundation’s staff and their collaborators—local militias recently formed by “Israel” in Gaza—in drug trafficking.

Alongside contaminating food aid, Israeli Occupation soldiers and settlers have continuously tried to smuggle drugs into Gaza since the beginning of the genocide.

The most recent incident, reported by Walla in May 2025, revealed that over the past two months, Israeli southern border officers and military police conducted a complex secret investigation into cigarette and drug smuggling across the southern border into Gaza.

The military police raided a border crossing and arrested several suspects, including active-duty soldiers and Israeli settlers.

Hundreds of items, including cigarettes and drugs worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, were confiscated.

This was not the first attempt. In previous operations, police, army, and the Shin Bet security service arrested several Israelis who smuggled drugs into Gaza using drones, according to the same source.

“Israel is trying to flood Gaza with drugs. Israeli gangs are smuggling drugs into the Strip via drones,” Palestinian activist Tamer Qdeih wrote on X.

“Israel exploits the crisis, suffering, and the psychological state of Gaza’s people to create an addicted society.”

In its coverage, Al-Estiklal noted that Israeli newspapers have repeatedly reported arrests since the start of the assault, yet the military institution expressed no objection to drug smuggling except for concerns that drones might fall into enemy hands and be used against “Israel.”

On May 19, 2025, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that three people were indicted in Be’er Sheva Central Court for smuggling a dangerous drug into Gaza using a drone, in coordination with an Egyptian partner, in exchange for thousands of dollars.

The detention request stated: “The defendants, each according to their role, were partners in exporting drugs during wartime, fully aware that the controlling entity in Gaza is Hamas, which has the capability to use drones for terrorist acts.”

Deepening the Chaos

Hamas has long linked Israeli Occupation’s drug smuggling to a deliberate plan to spread chaos in Gaza and recruit new agents, especially after suffering a major setback with its field spies during the assault, pushing it to adopt unprecedented tactics.

The Israeli army has employed “new methods,” the latest revealed by Gaza’s security forces: planting spy devices inside flour bags distributed as humanitarian aid to displaced families.

At the end of 2024, activists shared photos showing GPS tracking devices hidden inside some flour bags near displaced civilians’ tents and called for their immediate destruction if found.

Al-Haris security platform—the Resistance’s security media—posted a picture of the tracking device on its Telegram account, urging “all our people, particularly the resistance fighters, to remain vigilant and attentive to personal security measures.”

On July 3, 2025, a Hamas security official told Al-Jazeera that agents tasked with smuggling large quantities of drugs had been arrested, including intelligence officers embedded within aid teams.

The source explained that “drugs are used to trap young people, making them security liabilities and recruiting them for espionage missions,” adding that “Israel’s aid plan spreads chaos and creates a life-threatening environment by increasing suffering.”

He confirmed that aid points in Gaza are used to recruit collaborators and arrange meetings with Israeli Occupation intelligence, which conducts security operations through these centers.

The official emphasized that Israel’s aid strategy fuels disorder and drives people away by prolonging hardship, while encouraging the rise of criminal gangs directed to destabilize security.

Activists also reported Israeli Occupation’s attempts to entice the most vulnerable groups with drugs to work with it, alongside spreading addiction throughout society, aiming to build a cooperative community that helps capture captives and undermines Hamas.

This is intended to prevent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from having to end the assault and proceed with plans to occupy Gaza and forcibly displace its population.

One of “Israel’s” latest tactics to pressure residents into collaboration and turn them against the Resistance involved exploiting the cigarette shortage that followed shortly after the assault began.

In August 2024, residents of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza were surprised when Israeli Occupation forces dropped leaflets targeting smokers, each accompanied by a cigarette, a phone number, and the message: “If you want more cigarettes, call this number.”

The leaflets read: “Smoking is dangerous, but Hamas is more dangerous,” illustrating the psychological warfare underway.

The Israeli Occupation resorted to this tactic to recruit agents after the price of a single cigarette soared to over $30 amid severe shortages.

Activist Salama al-Ajrami mocked the leaflets at the time, saying, “Israel thinks a smoker will become a spy just because they need cigarettes during the shortage, targeting a social group they consider vulnerable. But time will prove, as before, that this will fail.”

It was no surprise that Yasser Abu Shabab, who leads an Israeli-backed militia in southern Gaza, is also a thief and drug smuggler.

Abu Shabab, 32, is from Rafah and belongs to the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, whose roots stretch across southern Gaza, Sinai, and the Negev Desert.

Hebrew media reported his involvement in drug smuggling networks between Gaza and Sinai, as well as looting and reselling UN aid trucks since 2024.

On June 5, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted for the first time that his government had armed this gang, justifying the move by claiming it was being used against Hamas in Gaza.