A, a large candy manufacturer in Israel, told Walla on Monday that he had never seen such an influx of demand for his products as he is seeing now in the Gaza market.
Israeli manufacturers have seen their inventories of sweets, soft drinks, and energy drinks dry up after Israel approved their entry into the Gaza Strip in the run-up to Ramadan.
A, a large candy manufacturer in Israel, told Walla on Monday that he had never seen such an influx of demand for his products as he is seeing now in the Gaza market.
“Two and a half months ago, I started receiving calls from all kinds of importers looking for goods to send to Gaza. At first, it was reasonable quantities, but it increased,” A told Walla.
Four months after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza, Israel has continued to allow around 700 humanitarian aid trucks a day to enter the enclave with food, shelter supplies, and medical equipment.
COGAT has publicly cited a daily range of 600 to 800 trucks since the ceasefire began, according to a December report by The Jerusalem Post.
Items are displayed for sale as Palestinians prepare for the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Gaza City, February 17, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)
According to industry sources, Israeli merchants are receiving large volumes of orders, even for goods set to expire within two or three weeks. Additionally, prices rarely need to be negotiated because Gazan merchants pay well above the Israeli market rate.
The goods are transported into the Strip through private channels and upsold in Gazan markets, a system which constitutes a substantial source of profit for several parties along the supply chain. When the trucks containing the goods enter the Gaza Strip, they are transferred to licensed local resellers.
The whole process is supervised by the state but carried out entirely by private entities on both sides of the border. To provide adequate oversight, the Israeli government decided in December 2025 that any purchase classified as aid must go through one of a limited number of Israeli companies granted “approved supplier” status.
These approved suppliers charge approximately NIS 10,000 per truck for inspection, plus a brokerage fee of 5% of the goods’ value, totaling an average of NIS 5,000 per truck. This extra NIS 15,000 per truck is absorbed into the price of the goods entering the Strip.
“One of the suppliers told me he hasn’t had any red Coke in his stores for a week because it’s all been emptied out,” A said.
“He went to the beverage company and pressured them to give him more inventory. Some of the ‘approved suppliers’ from COGAT, who are responsible only for transportation, called me and asked for 100 pallets overnight. I tried to explain that I don’t have any.”
Palestinian craftsman Mohannad al-Najjar makes Ramadan lanterns from used soft drink tin cans to bring joy to children despite scarce resources, in Khan Younis in the souther (credit: REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer)
Suppliers concerned over whom they are selling to
A admitted that he had some minor reservations about selling candy to potential terrorists in Gaza, but “in the end, the goods move one way or another.”
“What astounds me,” he said, “is that getting a truck into Gaza used to take a month of preparation, and the drivers would sleep next to the border crossing in order to be able to cross in time the next day [after a lengthy inspection process]. Today, it seems that countless trucks are entering Gaza [easily].”
“It’s reached a point,” A added, “that a meat supplier told me he had three trucks he wanted to fill with [Ramadan] goods, and it was worth it to him because in Israel they would sell at market price and in Gaza they would sell for thirty or forty percent above market rate.”
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.