Yasser Abu Shabab has been named as the leader of a Palestinian militia in Gaza that Israeli officials have reportedly armed to attempt to undermine Hamas, the New York Times reported on Friday.
Abu Shabab, a Bedouin man in his 30s, leads the Popular Forces, a crime group in Gaza that is significantly smaller than Hamas.
On Thursday, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman claimed on Kan Reshet Bet that Israel is arming crime families and militias in Gaza to fight Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not deny Liberman’s claim, and defended his decision.
“What’s bad about it?” he said, as reported by the New York Times. “It’s only good and it only saves the lives of Israel Defense Force soldiers.”
Why is Israel arming Gaza gangs?
A Thursday press release from the Prime Minister’s Office stated: “Israel is working to defeat Hamas through various means, as recommended by all heads of the security establishment.”
A video posted on Wednesday showed Abu Shabab telling the people of Rafah to return home, and said that food, medicine, and shelter would be provided. He then said he and his forces were working under “Palestinian legitimacy,” a phrase that the report noted the Palestinian Authority often uses.
However, analysts interviewed by the New York Times claim that the government is arming groups like the Popular Forces in order to avoid a long-term occupation of Gaza or a Palestinian Authority-led government ruling the enclave.
“If you think about who really can be an alternative to Hamas in Gaza, you have two options: either an Israeli military administration or the Palestinian Authority,” said retired Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, a former top Israeli military strategist.
Brom told the New York Times that given the choices, the Israeli government was looking for “other solutions.”
Abu Shabab has been accused several times of looting aid trucks in the Gaza Strip by aid truck drivers and international humanitarian officials.
Senior UN official Georgios Petropoulos once called him “the self-styled power broker of east Rafah,” according to the report.
In an interview quoted in the report, Abu Shabab said that he did not raid the trucks, and instead asserted that he was feeding his community.
“We are taking trucks so we can eat, not so we can sell,” he said, accusing Hamas of stealing aid.
The Popular Forces also said that it had safeguarded aid trucks entering the enclave.
“We confirm that 92 trucks were secured and entered areas under the protection of our popular forces, and exited safely under our supervision,” a post from the criminal grou reads.
Liberman originally claimed that the Palestinian groups were affiliated with ISIS. The New York Times report did not mention these claims.
The Yisrael Beytenu leader also said that the matter did not pass cabinet approval, and said that he did not know if the IDF was aware of the operation.
“In my opinion, this did not pass cabinet approval,” he said. “This was with the knowledge of the head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), but I don’t know how much the (IDF) chief of staff was privy to the matter.
Amichai Stein contributed to this report.
Source link
2025-06-07 02:58:00
