Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that his government provides weapons, financial aid, and support to a Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip that opposes Hamas, which currently governs the region.
This revelation follows comments by MP and former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, who asserted that Israel has transferred arms to this group.
Reports from Israeli and Palestinian media indicate that the group consists of members from a Bedouin tribe and is led by Yasser Abu Shabab. The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) characterizes Abu Shabab as the leader of a “criminal gang operating in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip, which extends into Egypt,” and accuses him of looting humanitarian aid trucks in the region.
“What’s the issue with that?”
In an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Lieberman criticized the Netanyahu administration for “arming a group of criminals and thugs.”
In response, Netanyahu stated in a video posted on his X account, “What has Lieberman revealed? That security forces have activated a Gaza tribe that opposes Hamas? What’s wrong with that?”
He added, “This is beneficial as it protects the lives of Israeli soldiers” in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is engaged in combat with Hamas following its unprecedented assault on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing conflict.
Michael Milstein, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, informed Agence France-Presse that the Abu Shabab tribe is part of a Bedouin community residing in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
“It appears that the Shabak (short for the Internal Security Service, also called Shin Bet) or the military believed it was wise to transform this militia into a proxy, supplying it with arms and funds while shielding it from military operations,” Milstein stated.
He noted that Hamas recently killed four members of this group.
Hamas urges citizens to resist this group
According to ECFR, Abu Shabab “was reportedly previously imprisoned by Hamas for drug offenses. His brother is believed to have been killed by Hamas during its crackdown on attacks targeting UN humanitarian aid convoys.”
Prior to implementing a comprehensive two-month blockade on the Gaza Strip in early March, which was only slightly eased in late May, Israel frequently accused Hamas of misappropriating or exploiting humanitarian aid intended for the war-torn Palestinian enclave, which is home to over 2 million people facing severe food shortages.
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