A militia under Netanyahu's control

Aid organisations have accused the group of looting aid supplies in Gaza. Palestinian eyewitnesses say its members have fired at starving civilians. Israel sees them as an experiment in creating an alternative to Hamas. And Hamas has branded them collaborators with the occupying power.

A new Palestinian militia supported by Israel has hit the headlines. Its members call themselves "Popular Forces", but they are also known by the name of their leader: the Shabab gang. Fairly insignificant in pure military terms, the size of the militia is estimated at 300 men. It operates exclusively in parts of the southern Gaza Strip that are under direct control of the Israeli army. The group is led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a man in his thirties who belongs to a prominent Bedouin family.

Under Hamas rule, Abu Shabab is said to have served time in prison as a drug dealer before being released during the Israeli offensive that followed the massacre of 7 October 2023. The militia he has assembled around him, many members of which have a similar biography to his, have made a name for themselves in recent months by looting aid supplies.

The Shabab militia plays a role in the new food distribution system established by the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Over the past few days, the militia has repeatedly appeared at new GHF distribution points, where they have been firing shots at people queuing, according to Palestinian eyewitnesses.

On Monday, people in Gaza reported for the first time that, in addition to the Israeli army, armed Palestinians working alongside Israeli forces had fired at them. One eyewitness told BBC Arabic that he had seen a group in civilian clothes with masked faces at one of the GHF distribution points in Tel al-Sultan in Rafah.

"At first, we thought they were Palestinian youths who had come to help with the distribution. But then they started shooting at us," reported eyewitness Hisham Saeed Salem. "Even those who managed to get hold of a box of food were shot at. We don't know exactly who the attackers are, but they took everything away from us," he says.

"Before, the Israeli army always fired at us, but now we are shocked by the presence of gangs and militias," says Mohammed Sakout, another eyewitness.

Former Israeli minister: "complete madness"

The militias also appear to have priority when it comes to the distribution of food. According to Muhammad Shadada, who monitors the situation in Gaza for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank, "the Israeli army and the GHF first let collaborators, gang members and subcontractors in before dawn, who take the most valuable items, such as cooking oil, to sell on the black market."

The Shabab gang is also known for stealing aid shipments. "Israel has publicly claimed that UN and NGO aid is being diverted by Hamas, but this does not stand up to scrutiny," Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said on 28 May. 

"Since the war began, the theft of aid has been perpetrated by criminal gangs under the supervision of Israeli forces, and they have been allowed to operate near the Kerem Shalom border crossing in Gaza," Whittall said.

The militia finally entered the spotlight on 5 June, when its existence was publicly debated in Israel for the first time. Former Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on television of providing weapons to "a group of criminals and serious offenders" under the leadership of Abu Shabab. The group was even said to have ties to the Islamic State (IS).

Liberman criticised Netanyahu for arming the militia without the approval of the security cabinet, characterising the move as "utter madness". Netanyahu then published a video in which he admitted that Israel had "activated" some Palestinian clans in Gaza, acting on the advice of "security officials". He asked, "What's wrong with that? It's a good thing and it saves the lives of our soldiers."

An unnamed Israeli security official told the Israeli news portal Ynet that the arming of the Shabab militia was "planned and managed" by the Israeli domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, to reduce Israeli losses and systematically undermine Hamas by promoting rival forces.

The Israeli television station Channel 12 quoted another security source who stated, "This is just the beginning". The Israeli army is considering expanding this experiment to other areas following the "success of the pilot project in Rafah".

Branded as traitors by Hamas

The Shabab militia first appeared in May last year, when the distribution of aid was still being managed exclusively by the UN. Last December, there were growing reports that just beyond the Israeli border, a large proportion of aid deliveries were being looted by criminal gangs and the aid was being sold on the open market in Gaza.

In November 2024, The Washington Post quoted from an internal UN memo stating that criminal gangs benefited directly or indirectly from the goodwill of, and were even protected by, the Israeli army. The report also mentioned the existence of a kind of military camp for the gangs, located "in an area with restricted access, controlled and patrolled by the Israeli army."

The Israeli army denied any knowledge of this at the time. Exactly who was behind the gangs remained unclear. But even then, Bedouin families from the prominent Tarabin tribe, who had previously been rumoured to be involved in other criminal activities, were named.

Now, in Yasser Abu Shabab, the entire affair has been given a name and a face. His clan—part of the Tarabin tribe, which spans both Gaza and the north of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt—has now distanced itself from him and is calling for his death. "We affirm that we will not accept Yasser's return to the family," the clan said in a statement. "We have no objection to those around him liquidating him immediately."

Hamas have described Abu Shabab as a traitor: "We vow before God to continue fighting the hideouts of this criminal and his gang, no matter what sacrifices we have to make." Yasser's brother has already been killed by Hamas. Yasser himself has survived at least two assassination attempts.

Within Hamas, there is a separate unit called Sahm (Arabic for arrow) whose task is to execute people branded as collaborators. This week saw the first exchange of fire between the Shabab militia and Sahm, in which the militia claims to have laid an ambush and killed six Sahm members.

Politically harmless to Israel

The Shabab militia itself denies being a tool of the Israeli occupation. On social media, the group presents itself as "the voice of the people who are tired of chaos, terrorism and division." Yasser Abu Shabab described his militia to the US television channel CNN as "a group of citizens" who have volunteered to protect the humanitarian aid system from looting and corruption.

For its part, Israel's aim in setting up the militia seems to be for the group to act as a long-term intermediary between the population in Gaza and the Israeli army. So far, however, its strategic value is low; its area of operation in southern Gaza and its size are limited.

The question of who could take over the long-term administration of the Gaza Strip from Hamas remains unresolved. Netanyahu is determined to prevent the Palestinian Authority or any other political group from playing a role in Gaza.

The major advantage of militias like the Shabab gang for Netanyahu is that they appear to survive only through Israeli weapons and favours, and they pose no political threat, for example, by demanding a two-state solution or a Palestinian state. They serve merely as an extension of the Israeli occupation.

This text is an edited translation of the German original.