Head of Israel-backed criminal group confirms fighting against Hamas in Gaza

TEHRAN (Iran News) Yasser Abu Shabab, whose armed group is accused by Palestinians and international humanitarian officials of looting aid trucks in the Gaza Strip, has claimed that they are attempting to fight Hamas and prevent the resistance movement from accessing aid.

Abu Shabab, a 32-year-old Rafah native of Bedouin descent, made the comments in an interview with the Israeli Army Radio after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that the regime is supporting an armed group opposed to Hamas.

Netanyahu’s admission followed comments by Israel’s former minister of military affairs Avigdor Lieberman that the regime, “at the direction of the prime minister,” was giving weapons to “a group of criminals and felons” affiliated with the Daesh terror group.

During the interview, which was carried by Israeli media on Sunday, Abu Shabab claimed that his group calling itself “The Popular Forces,” has no ties with Israel, but did not rule out coordination with the regime in the future.

He also claimed that they received arms from the Tarabin Bedouin tribe and are funded through “personal efforts and donations.”

Abu Shabab also rejected that his group receives money from the Palestinian Authority (PA), but said that the PA helps them conduct what he called security inspections with the aim of preventing aid from reaching Hamas.

Abu Shabab, a local clan leader in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, is known locally for his involvement in criminal activity and the looting of humanitarian aid.

Hamas has said it had evidence of “clear coordination between these looting gangs, collaborators with the occupation (Israel),” calling on civilians to oppose them, according to France 24.

France 24 also cited the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank as saying that Abu Shabab was reported to “have been previously jailed by Hamas for drug smuggling.”

On 28 May, Jonathan Whittall, the head of United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in occupied Palestinian territories said: “Israel has publicly claimed that the UN and NGO aid is being diverted by Hamas. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces.”

Whittall later told the London-based Guardian newspaper that he was “referring to gangs such as Abu Shabab.”

Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel began its genocidal war in early October 2023, are facing a critical humanitarian situation that continues to deteriorate due to a crippling Israeli siege in place since March 2.

Israel imposed the siege to force Hamas to accept its own terms for a ceasefire deal in Gaza, and has remained defiant in the face of calls by the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to ease the restrictions. They say Israel is using starvation as a method of war against Palestinians.