An Israeli court has indicted a brother of the chief of Israel’s security service on charges of smuggling tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes into war-ravaged Gaza Strip at a time when getting aid into the territory is difficult and many Palestinians go hungry.

The documents, spanning from February 2023 to an hour before attack, show how Israel's defense echelon misread Hamas’s intentions, and characterized the terror group as deterred.

The brother of Israel’s internal spy chief has been arrested and is set be charged with aiding Hamas. Bezalel Zini, brother of Shin Bet director David Zini, is accused of taking part in a large-scale criminal operation to smuggle contraband cigarettes into the Gaza Strip.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 21 Palestinians, including two infants, and further rocking a fragile ceasefire deal, hospital officials said. Israel said it was responding to a militant attack on Israeli soldiers that seriously wounded one.

It marks the last hostage-detainee exchange between Israel and Hamas carried out as part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October.

Follow the latest on the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Get live updates, reports, analysis and more on Reuters.

Israel agreed to return 15 Palestinian bodies for each hostage recovered, according to the ceasefire terms. It’s unclear if the bodies released Thursday were of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.

Israeli security service chief's brother is accused of smuggling cigarettes into Gaza. The indictment of Bezalel Zini is the latest in a burgeoning scandal implicating more than a dozen people, many of them Israeli reserve soldiers.

IDF soldier Corporal Noa Marciano, 19, was abducted during Oct. 7 massacre and murdered by Hamas terrorist Muhammad Issam Hassan al-Habil, who was killed in Israeli strike.