Israel Police on Thursday submitted a prosecutor’s declaration against 11 suspects in the new security affair connected to the smuggling of goods into Gaza.

According to the declaration, the state plans to file formal indictments against the suspects next week.

The suspects’ identities and details of the case are still under a court-issued gag order. However, later today, the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court is expected to respond to petitions by several media outlets to lift the gag order.

Rumors have been swirling about the identity of one of the individuals connected to the affair. However, according to reports, a decision has not yet been made whether to include him in the indictment.

On Wednesday, Kan News military correspondent Roy Sharon said that the case is not as serious as rumors have made it out to be.

“We’ve seen truly serious security cases before—espionage, treason, arms trafficking, and weapons theft,” Sharon said. “This case is less serious. It doesn’t involve ideological crime, and no one sold out national security for money.”

“We don’t know everything, and even what we do know can’t be reported yet,” he added. “There are many suspects who have been barred from meeting lawyers and are being questioned by the Shin Bet, while others are being investigated by the police and have legal representation. The suspect who’s fueling rumors in recent days belongs to the latter group, and the suspicions against him are on the lower end of the scale.”

He added, “To the best of my understanding, there’s no concern regarding the continuation of the service of any figure in the security system whose name has been mentioned as a relative of one of the suspects.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)