Merchants in the Gaza Strip say the Hamas-run Economy Ministry subjects them to unexplained financial demands and sometimes seizes and even destroys goods in a market battered by war, shortages and rising costs of bringing goods into the territory.
Merchants who spoke to MBN said that, in some cases, the authorities’ financial demands were tied to permission to bring goods into Gaza or secure their release. If they refuse to pay, they said, goods can be held up and commercial activity halted.
The demands have become one of Hamas’s main sources of revenue after its income fell sharply in the wake of the October 7 attack, according to people familiar with the matter and multiple press reports. The United States and the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist group.
The Hamas-run Economy Ministry, for its part, denies imposing taxes or customs duties on goods entering the territory. It says its role is focused on monitoring markets, inspecting trucks and merchandise, and checking their safety and quality.
The war that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel brought widespread collapse to commercial activity in Gaza and sharply curtailed the flow of goods, weakening the Hamas-run authorities’ ability to rely on conventional taxes and fees.
As those revenues dwindled, other mechanisms linked to the movement of goods—particularly smuggled merchandise—emerged as a source of income for the group, which faces mounting pressure on its funding streams.
After Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, legislation passed by the territory’s Legislative Council gave the Economy Ministry authority to oversee goods and administer certain fees and revenues—powers previously held by the Finance Ministry.
Financial demands tied to goods
After the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, merchants told MBN, officials linked to the Hamas-run Economy Ministry got back to monitoring traders and warehouses, restricting the movement of goods, and making what they described as irregular financial demands.
In February 2026, Reuters reported that Hamas had resumed collecting money from the private sector, including fees on smuggled goods, which the news agency described as one of the group’s sources of revenue.
A Gaza merchant told MBN that the ministry demanded five million Israeli shekels—about $1.6 million—for trucks he had brought into the territory during the final three months of 2025. Negotiations ended with him paying three million shekels to secure the release of the goods, he said, without receiving receipts.
Estimates published by The Economist in November 2023 put Hamas’s annual revenues at more than $1 billion, including about $360 million from taxes on goods entering Gaza and roughly $750 million from external sources. These are estimates, not official financial disclosures.
The collapse in trade after the war began reduced the ability of conventional taxes to generate that revenue. Other ways of collecting money tied to the movement of goods then emerged, including fees on some smuggled merchandise.
Before October 2023, Hamas drew revenue from taxes and fees on goods, imports and businesses in Gaza, as well as licensing charges, customs duties and other fees, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
FinCEN says those structured sources of revenue effectively disappeared after the war began, as economic activity collapsed and trade was disrupted.
Tax collection, oversight, seizure and destruction
A second merchant from central Gaza told MBN that Economy Ministry personnel conduct regular inspections of warehouses and shops, at times accompanied by armed men. He said merchants face financial demands whose basis is unclear to them, adding that the costs feed into prices amid shortages and rising expenses for bringing goods into the territory.
The Hamas-run Economy Ministry says its work is centered on market oversight and checking whether goods are fit for consumption. It said consumer-protection teams carried out about 55 inspection rounds in September 2026, covering 425 establishments, and seized non-compliant products and destroyed goods deemed unfit for consumption.
Ministry reports recorded 31 seizure notices in November 2025, 34 in May 2026 and 19 in June. In May, the ministry also said it had seized 369.2 metric tons of goods that failed to meet standards. It has not published cumulative figures for the value or volume of goods held since the ceasefire.
Samir Abu Mudallala, an economics professor at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, told MBN that checking goods for safety remains essential even during wartime. But exceptional conditions, he said, require a different approach to inventory management: identifying goods at risk of spoiling, prioritizing the release and rapid distribution of those still fit for use, and holding accountable anyone responsible for goods being detained or stored until they expired.
A merchant who deals in processed meats and canned goods in Deir al-Balah told MBN that Economy Ministry personnel demanded ten million shekels for the trucks he had brought into Gaza. After he refused to pay, he said his warehouses were raided and some goods confiscated. Part of the seized stock was destroyed two days later on the grounds that it had expired, he said.
Published data do not provide independent figures for the amount of money collected specifically by Gaza’s Economy Ministry from merchants since the ceasefire.
The Palestinian newspaper Al-Eqtisadiya, however, reported that the committee tasked with combating economic crimes had seized money from merchants valued at about $25 million.
In a statement, Gaza’s Social Development Ministry said the money had been seized from merchants accused of hoarding goods, manipulating prices, stockpiling products and trading in aid. Some of the funds, it said, were used to finance cash assistance.
Trade after the war
The merchants’s complaints come as trade into Gaza faces sweeping restrictions.
The Gaza Chamber of Commerce recorded 1,293 commercial trucks entering the territory over two weeks in June 2026, according to figures cited by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)—a monthly pace of about 2,800 trucks. Before the war, an average of about 15,000 trucks entered every month, according to OCHA data.
In August 2026, Gaza’s chambers of commerce and private-sector institutions said restrictions on trade and the mechanisms for bringing in trucks had imposed a heavy financial burden. Payments made through what they called “illegal coordination” had exceeded $2.06 billion from the start of the war through July 26, 2026, they said.
The Associated Press reported in August 2026 that money continued to be collected on some smuggled goods. A Gaza Economy Ministry official told the news agency that authorities collect up to 20 percent of the value of smuggled goods if a merchant reports them, and that the rate can rise to 80 percent if authorities discover goods that were not declared. Officials in Gaza’s administration estimated that collections from smuggled goods since the ceasefire could reach $100 million, AP reported.
The agency said Gaza’s Economy Ministry does not describe these payments as taxes, while its investigation found that the Hamas-led administration was collecting money from smuggling activity.
Taken together, the available information shows that taxes and fees on trade were an important local source of revenue for the Hamas-run government before the war, and that the collapse of economic activity after October 2023 sharply reduced that income.
Recent reports nevertheless point to a resumption of collections tied to the movement of goods, particularly smuggled products. The available data do not make it possible to determine the scale of those collections or what share reaches Hamas directly.
