The leader of the militia that Israel has promoted in Gaza in an effort to counter Hamas has died this Thursday in an Israeli hospital, according to several Israeli newspapers citing confidential sources. Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of Abu Shabab militiawould have died due to a fight between clans in Gaza, according to the same sources, who avoid attributing the incident to the Palestinian organization Hamas.
During the months prior to ceasefire started in Octoberthe Israeli authorities had facilitated or supervised the establishment of Abu Shabab men in the periphery of Rafahan area in the south of the enclave controlled by the Israeli Army. From there, the organization—accused of having jihadist inspiration—offered Gazan families a camp located in a “Hamas-free” territory where they would not lack food or water. All while the rest of the enclave moved towards famine, officially declared in August. The group’s drive, which in October had more than 500 fighters, ultimately sought to challenge Hamas for control of the enclave, something that would have subjected the Strip to civil conflict.
The Israeli public broadcaster Kan has echoed images showing alleged fighting between several members of the Abu Shabab militia, who call themselves Popular Forces, and a group chanting in favor of Hamas. Since the beginning of the truce, last October 13Hamas has persecuted, detained or executed members of other armed clans it perceives as rivals. Later, Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin warlord and native of Rafah, was reportedly taken wounded to a hospital in southern Israel, where he died. The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba has denied reports linking it to hospital care provided to Abu Shabab inside Israel.
Beersheba, like other municipalities in southern Israel, is less than an hour’s drive from Kerem Shalom, one of the steps to Gaza most used by Israeli troops and humanitarian convoys. Precisely, the 50 hectare territory in an area under strict Israeli control where the Abu Shabab militia has gained strength in recent months is located just five kilometers from that border crossing, through which a good part of the little humanitarian aid that accesses the enclave.
An internal United Nations report dated November 2024 and accessed by the British media Sky News, identifies Yasser Abu Shabab’s organization as “the major actor behind the massive and systematic looting” against humanitarian convoys in Gaza. Israel, however, has always accused Hamas of this, using this unproven argument as a basis to block the humanitarian system led by the UN, with more than 400 distribution points, and establish the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundationwith four or five distribution points depending on the moment. The American mercenaries and Israeli soldiers who guarded those facilities—already dismantled—opened fire daily against starving populations, killing more than 800 people in a few months of activity, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The Israeli authorities have avoided making statements this Thursday regarding the death of their ally in Gaza. On June 5, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not deny that he was reinforcing the activities of that militia in the enclave: “Israel is working to defeat Hamas through multiple means, as recommended by all the heads of the security authorities.”
That emergency statement from Netanyahu was in response to the former Minister of Defense, Avigdor Liebermanwho went on Israeli public radio to accuse the Government of arming “criminal families in Gaza” who “identify with the Islamic State.” “No one can guarantee that these weapons will not turn against us at some point,” concluded Lieberman, a veteran Israeli politician.
A criminal against Hamas
The rise of Abu Shabab, seen in Gaza as a criminal involved in looting, trafficking and extortion, was reflected in his growing abilities to reach a growing audience. The group first made itself known on Facebook, where in mid-2025 it announced the establishment of a zone in Rafah where Gazans could access aid and security. “The Popular Forces have returned to eastern Rafah under the protection of Palestinian legitimacy,” they said while criticizing Hamas and the Palestinian Authoritywhich governs parts of the West Bank. The videos showed men armed with assault rifles and military equipment in impeccable condition, and showed how they delivered boxes of food to Palestinian families while deaths from starvation occurred in the rest of the Strip. They also published telephone numbers so that displaced families could go to the area, surrounded by Israeli troops.
A little later, Abu Shabab published articles in the American newspaper The Washington Post. “Our neighborhood has become the first area of Gaza not governed by Hamas since 2007,” the militant claimed in a piece written in July. “Our patrols keep Hamas at bay. As a result, life here is nothing like life in Gaza. Here there is access to food, shelter, water and medical supplies.” There, he concluded, “the war is over.”
A leader of the Popular Forces declared to Sky News in October that the territory they control housed some 1,500 people, of which between 500 and 700 were combatants. The arrival of the truce during that month left the future of the militia and its relationship with Israel in question, but kept the militiamen and their families protected by Israel east of the Yellow Linewhich determines the half of the Strip that Israeli troops control under the first phase of the fragile truce.
“Israel has chosen [como aliado] one of the few actors in Gaza that is less popular than Hamas,” explained Rob Geist Pinfold, professor in International Security and doctor in War Studies at Kings College in London, during an interview with EL PAÍS in July. “But I think that [apoyar a Abu Shabab] “It serves Israel’s long-term goals, which are not to find an alternative to Hamas, but to create chaos and turn Gaza into an ungovernable and uninhabitable territory.”
