Last week, Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, admitted that his government has “activated clans that oppose Hamas” in Gaza, following the recommendations of “Security Responsible”, and claimed that in this way it helps to “save lives from Israeli soldiers” deployed in the strip.
So far, an armed group has been identified that acts with the approval of Israeli forces or in areas under their control in southern Gaza. Israeli media have revealed that the Government has armed the group led by Yasser Abu Shabab and Palestinian sources denounce that it is involved in criminal activities and that it has participated in the looting of humanitarian aid cargoes.
The Israeli government and army have repeatedly accused Hamas of staying with the help that reached the Palestinian enclave and benefiting from their sale, and with that pretext they have minimized their distribution through the UN agencies and independent humanitarian organizations, replacing it with a private system managed by a United States entity and supervised by Israeli troops.
Who is Abu Shabab?
The best known group that is under media scrutiny is the one directed by Yasser Abu Shabab, composed of few hundred men and called 'popular forces'. Abu Shabab belongs to a well -known Beduina family in southern Gaza, is just over 30 years old and has jumped to fame in recent weeks for his alleged collaboration with Israel.
Israeli official sources have told the CNN television network That the ABU Shabab group has received weapons from Israel, within the framework of that support that the Government has provided to Gazati militias. The newspaper The Times of Israel He revealed last week that the country provided to this faction Kalashnikov assault rifles, including some weapons seized to Hamas.
Abu Shabab has declared to the CNN that his group is made up of “citizens” of his community that have been offered as volunteers to “protect the humanitarian aid from looting and corruption”. The leader has denied in responses sent to the CNN that has received weapons from Israel: “Our equipment is extremely basic, inherited by volunteers from their ancestors or assembly with limited local resources.” The group has rejected the information published by the Israeli media, which “seek to distort the image of a base force born of suffering.” “We have never been and we will never be an instrument of the” Israeli occupation, she said in a statement on its Facebook page.
Recently, popular forces have had a great activity in social networks, spreading information and refuting another, and have published numerous images of their leader, Abu Shabab. In the images he appears carrying a rifle, with camouflage clothes and with his face discovered.
In an interview by email with the newspaper The GuardianAbu Shabab has affirmed that their activities are “humanitarian” and that their men offer “security in the areas controlled by popular forces and support hundreds of families.” The leader has also pointed to Hamas for the looting of humanitarian aid trucks, in the same line as Israel: “The aid is stolen in areas controlled by Hamas.”
Who is behind the theft of help?
The Israeli army again accused the Islamist group Hamás on Thursday of having confiscated humanitarian aid since the beginning of the war, on October 7, 2023. According to a military statementHamas decided that between 15% and 25% of the humanitarian aid that entered Gaza “would automatically deviate to the terrorist organization and their needs.”
To date, there is no evidence that Hamas has benefited from the aid or that is behind the looting of the United Nations trucks, which have not ceased since May 19, when Israel decided to allow the entry of a tiny amount of cargoes. When the Gazatí police were more present, he sometimes tried to protect the humanitarian convoys, but his agents have been attacked by Israel repeatedly for being considered members of Hamas – which has led them to hide in the past months.
This week, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has reported that “some cases of violent looting and truckers attacks have been recorded.” “Ocha reiterates that Israel, as an occupying power, has the responsibility of guaranteeing public order and security in Gaza. This should include the entry of many more essential supplies, through multiple crosses and routes, to meet humanitarian needs and help reduce looting,” he said in a statement.
Asked by elDiario.esan Ocha spokesman, Jens Laerke, admits that “looting – sometimes described more precisely as self -distribution between desperate people – is a problem.” But Laerke says that Ocha workers in the strip cannot identify those who loot their cargoes: “There is no way of knowing who does it.”
Humanitarian workers have told the AP news agency that the ABU Shabab group has a long history of United Nations truck looting.
In November 2024, the newspaper The Washington Post He obtained a memorandum Internal of the United Nations in which the agency indicated that the bands that stole humanitarian aid “could be benefiting from a passive benevolence, if it does not activate, or the protection of the Israel Defense Forces (FDI).” In addition, that newspaper said that on multiple occasions Israeli troops did not intervene while looting, according to humanitarian workers, UN officials, transport workers and drivers of Gazati trucks.
The UN memorandum identified Abu Shabab as “the main and most influential actor behind the systematic and mass looting” of the aid convoys. Abu Shabab's men operated at that time on the route of trucks from the Israeli border passage of Kerem Shalom (through which almost all of the aid enters) towards the south of Gaza, in an area controlled by the IDF.
Can the bands counteract Hamas?
Netanyahu said that his government's support for Gaza's clans aims to weaken Hamas, but reality on the ground is much more complex. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas, for its acronym in Arabic) is a powerful political and armed group, with tens of thousands of members, and has been governing the strip since 2007, when he faced with the Palestinian national authority (ANP) and assumed power in the coastal enclave – while the ANP continued to exert a very limited control in the occupied rust.
After his arrival to power, Hamas managed to limit the activity of criminal gangs, mainly smuggers who operated between Gaza and Egypt, and faced other groups armed with power and influence in the strip. These groups were associated with families, clans and tribes that have a prominent role in the traditional Gazatí society and sometimes defend their interests and impose their authority by force.
Hamas has been very weakened in the last 20 months of conflict, in which Israel has hit both its armed arm and its political organization, and little remains of the institutions of its government in the strip. Amid the destruction caused by the Israeli offensive and the power vacuum, the bands and clans have become strong in the Palestinian enclave, as the once dreaded security forces of Hamas have disappeared (which came to arrest, torture and kill their opponents).
Hamas has tried to maintain some control in the streets of Gaza and, recently, has faced Abu Shabab's men, who have apparently counted the support of Israel. I24News Israeli news channel reported This week of the first attack carried out by the Army to protect members of the Abu Shabab group. According to I24News, a military drone ended with several Hamas terrorists who tried to attack the militiamen. In addition, I24News revealed last week that Israel is transferring weapons to Gaza to fight Hamas and, according to an Israeli source consulted by the middle, “it is not the first time this happens in the last two years.”
However, Israel's strategy to support and assemble groups confronted with Hamas can lead to more chaos and violence in the strip, and that the situation is ungovernable in the medium and long term, which would put at risk the plans of the Israeli government to militarily control the territory and, even, to establish there Jewish settlements there.
