World Central Kitchen reports drugs hidden inside humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian aid organization reported finding hundreds of grams of narcotics hidden inside a shipment of canned peppers sent into the Gaza Strip as part of a larger delivery of food and other humanitarian supplies.

According to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), WCK workers discovered several bags containing approximately 600 grams of hashish inside the shipment. They also found another bag containing approximately 160 grams of other illegal substances.

COGAT announced Monday that WCK had “responsibly reported a smuggling attempt detected inside humanitarian aid supplies.”

"The incident demonstrates once again that Hamas will stop at nothing to exploit humanitarian aid for its own needs," COGAT said, adding that it "strongly condemns the serious smuggling of drugs" and said it would continue working with all relevant parties against "any attempt to abuse humanitarian aid mechanisms."

"Hamas remains the main obstacle to further improving the situation in the Gaza Strip," a senior COGAT official added. “The organization interferes with humanitarian activity, exploits civilian infrastructure, influences distribution mechanisms and continues its repeated attempts to smuggle prohibited items under the guise of humanitarian aid."

The incident comes shortly after COGAT published the findings of an investigation into the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip. The report concluded that the amount of food entering the territory vastly exceeds the United Nations’ own estimates of what is required to meet the civilian population’s needs.

The report stated that “The entry of food into the Gaza Strip is nearly threefold the requirements defined by the World Food Program (WFP).” Between October 2025 and June 7, 2026, approximately 1.78 million tons of food entered the Gaza Strip, the report said, adding that these quantities “substantially exceed every humanitarian food requirement benchmark published by WFP concerning Gaza.”

Additionally, it stated that even against the WFP's higher post-ceasefire benchmark, the amount of food entering Gaza “exceeded it by nearly threefold in aggregate.”

The reported drug-smuggling attempt comes as the IDF has stepped up strikes on Hamas training grounds, weapons depots and other terror infrastructure in recent days, amid what the military described as continued preparations by the terror organization to renew attacks on Israeli communities.

An IDF statement said the latest strikes targeted weapons storage facilities located inside two mosques in the Shati and Deir al-Balah areas.

The statement added that advance warning was given before the strikes, which used precise munitions and aerial surveillance in an effort to reduce harm to civilians.

On Monday, the IDF announced that Hamas operative Hamam Khazem had been arrested by the elite undercover Duvdevan force in Jenin on suspicion that he was "planning to carry out an attack inside Israel."

Several other suspected terror operatives and their supporters have been arrested throughout Judea and Samaria in recent weeks amid heightened security tensions.