Armed militias and bands supported by Israel are taking control of Gaza parts, which aggravates the humanitarian crisis and potentially threats any effort to restore order if the Donald Trump plan for Gaza is carried out.
The Israeli army and security services have been assembling and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces for several months and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy seems to have gained impulse in recent weeks.
The so -called popular forces, under the command of a commander named Yasser Abu Shabab, carry several months operating in the south of the territoryin close coordination with the Israeli forces around the controversial help distribution centers managed by the Humanitarian Foundation of Gaza, an opaque private organization backed by the United States and Israel.
Now they have emerged to a dozen new militias in much of Gaza, in addition to the popular forces.
Hossam Al -astal, leader of a newly formed force that operates in the Jan Yunis area, says: “People here fear Hamas, and Hamas has always opted for no alternative to replace them in Gaza, but today I tell them that there is an alternative force. It could be me, Abu Shabab or any other person, but today there are alternatives.”
“I'm sorry, I would work with the devil himself if that helped me to protect my city. (Hamas) must leave Gaza,” Astal told The Guardian newspaper.
The proliferation of armed militias in Gaza is causing more problems to humanitarian organizations, which already face the Israeli restrictions and huge logistics obstacles.
An official of an important humanitarian aid agency that operates in Gaza says that they had not “had news of the de facto authority” – a euphemism to refer to Hamas – since March and that they were now dealing with “a variety of different actors.”
“In the north there is no one in command, in the central area there are some very powerful families and some small informal militias … and in the south there are formalized Israeli clients that obtain weapons and others from the Israeli army,” he says. “The public order is deteriorating, the social fabric is falling apart and people are really desperate and in survival mode, and each one goes on their own.”
Many of these armed groups have a history of looting humanitarian aid or extorting the humanitarian organizations and other Palestinians living in Gaza to obtain payments in exchange for protection.
In a recent report, The Independent Observatory of ACLED conflicts He affirmed that since October 2023 he has registered more than 220 “Violent Intrapalestinian incidents that have caused the death of around 400 Palestinians.” Among the victims were police officers, clans and band leaders, thieves, anti-hamás activists, people accused of collaborating with Israel and merchants accused of speculation, according to Acledge.
“The looting of humanitarian aid, the robberies and violent activities of the bands, clans and armed groups have become general,” says the report, adding that almost 70% of these incidents occurred after Israel broke the high fire of two months in March 2025.
The Israeli forces have systematically attacked police officers and local officials, whom they consider part of Hamas, who took power in Gaza in 2007 and directed the Ministry of Interior of the territory.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused the death of more than 66,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and has reduced much of the territory to ruins. In August the famine was declared in some areas of northern Gaza.
Hamas has tried to fight bands and militias, forming special units that chase looters and collaborators. In June, it was reported that Hamas had killed 50 fighters from the popular forces. Two weeks ago, Hamas had an ambush to a group of militiamen in northern Gaza and killed several, according to a Palestinian analyst. There are also periodic reports of public executions of “collaborators” by Hamas.
Astal, 50, denies any direct support from Israel and states that her pregnant daughter and many relatives have died in Israeli air attacks, which, according to him, demonstrates that she is not a “collaborator.”
“We do not fight against Hamas for Israel, but for ourselves … today I have the opportunity, so I must take advantage of it. I do not care to sign a peace agreement with Israel, because we have already had enough wars and many of mine die every year. I am 50 years old. Since I was born we have been at war,” he says.
The Times of Israel reported that Astal worked within Israel for years before joining the security forces of the Palestinian authority, which were expelled from Gaza by Hamas when the Islamist militant organization took power in 2007. Subsequently, it was imprisoned multiple times by Hamas, according to the newspaper.
It is not clear how many armed men can deploy Astal, and it is believed that Abu Shabab's popular forces are composed of less than 100 combatants. There are reports from other armed groups, sometimes with only a dozen members, who are being formed in the east of the city of Gaza and in the so -called “central camps” around Nuseirat.
Yaakov Amidor, former general division and national security advisor, said last week that Israel could take advantage of divisions within Gaza's society to create forces that opposed Hamas. One possibility, according to him, would be to support the important descendants of the original inhabitants of the territory against others whose parents or grandparents arrived in 1948, when they were forced to flee what became Israel.
“They can be influential people at the local level and take control of their area, family or tribe and not allow Hamas to be there, and then we can support them and, if they can be part of the solution, then (that) would be great … if the worst comes to the worst, it will be like Somalia … No one will have control. It will be bad for Israel, but better than having Hamas,” said Am.
According to the 20 Trump Points Plan for Gaza, outlined on Monday, a Tecnocratas Council would govern the territory and an “International Temporary Stabilization Force”, possibly composed of troops provided by the regional powers, would maintain the order in Gaza. But such a force could have difficulties in such a chaotic environment.
Analysts have warned that empowering groups like Astal's in an already fractured society could accelerate the internal conflict and strengthen the criminal elements.
“Without strict supervision, they could even become rebel actors that feed instability instead of mitigating it,” writes Neomi Neumann, an attached researcher at the Washington Institute and former head of the Research Unit of the Internal Security Service of Israel, Shin Bet, earlier this year.
Astal states that Hamas is not scared, that he had sentenced him to death. “They are trying to finish with me and I know, but I don't care.” duck.
The war was triggered after Hamas's attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, in which the militants killed 1200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages, of which about 50 remain in Gaza, and it is believed that about 20 are still alive.