Israeli-backed Palestinian looting gangs have lived in luxury while Gaza burned. A Sky News investigation shows how local militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab has positioned himself and his allies to rule Gaza after the ceasefire. Abu Shabab’s forces have benefited massively from Israeli support and aid passed through the the deeply dodgy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Sky News mapped the areas under the militias control, saying one:

…small neighbourhood is the headquarters of the Popular Forces, Yasser Abu Shabab’s former looting gang which now, with Israel’s backing, hopes to wrest control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas.

Palestinian militia product of their environment

Sources inside the Popular Forces and IDF told the Murdoch-owned channel details of the plans.

Hassan Abu Shabab, an ally and relative if the militia leader, told Sky recent recruitment had “swelled the group’s forces across Gaza to around 3,000”.

One senior aid worker said cigarettes were one way the militia cashed in:

Abu Shabab was empowered by cigarette smuggling.

In that kind of curtailed environment, you’re going to get Abu Shababs.

Images and video published by Sky News show bags of cash in the hands of the militia. The leader admits his gang has targeted truck going into Gaza, but said they had hit specific commercial targets and not aid trucks:

Hamas accused us of stealing the shipments, while in reality, we were bringing them for our families and distributing them.

Yes, there were some breaches, with a few people who sold things off – fine. But things escalated. Hamas’s men came in and they killed my cousins. […] Fifty-four people were lost in that massacre.

Israeli-backed forces

After the clashes with Hamas, which Sky News could not verify, Israel:

began coordinating with Yasser Abu Shabab to smuggle in cash, food, guns and vehicles for use in his battles against Hamas.

The equipment is brought in in coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Israeli military, and neighbouring countries like Egypt. Reportedly the food comes directly from GHF, whose armed aid distribution points proved to be deadly for many Palestinians.

The Norwegian Refugee Council told Sky News that having militias in the aid supply chain broke with core humanitarian principles:

Once channelled through an armed group, aid no longer meets that definition.

It becomes indistinguishable from support to one side in the fighting and may expose agencies to accusations of complicity or liability under counter-terrorism and sanctions frameworks.

IDF links

Sky News also spoke to a serving IDF soldier who confirmed Israeli is directly backing the Popular Forces:

The cooperation [with Yasser Abu Shabab] mainly goes through [Israel’s security service] Shin Bet, or some official state mechanism.

We just bring in the food, make sure it arrives in Gaza.

The soldier, who is a Bedouin serving in the Israeli military, said:

Israel helps him, it gives him grenades, it gives him money, it gives him vehicles, it gives him food, it gives him all types of things.

A new political battle is being waged to see who administrates Gaza after the latest ceasefire. It seems Israel is positioning its well-fed, well-funded collaborators for the job. Their support, along with the Palestinian Authority’s, of rogue racketeers is a strategic choice to further entrench unrest and instability for Palestinians surviving genocidal horror after genocidal horror.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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