Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on Thursday that his country has been arming criminal gangs in Gaza. In a video post on X, Netanyahu said that powerful clans in the area had been “activated” on the advice of “security officials.” His admission came after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused him of employing the strategy earlier the same day on Kan Bet public radio, when he also said that the move “did not go through approval by the cabinet.”
According to Haaretz, the group that Netanyahu admitted to supporting is linked to Yasser Abu Shabab, a man that the Israeli newspaper reports is a “powerful and well-connected” head of a Bedouin family who has served jail time in Gaza for “criminal offenses.” Members of his group, according to Lieberman, “are in essence lawless criminals who in recent years wanted to give themselves an ideological angle or spin, so they became Salafi [jihadists] and began identifying with ISIS.”
The group, known in different reports as the “Popular Forces” or “Anti-Terror Service,” has been accused of looting humanitarian aid in southern Gaza since last year. Abu Shabab did not completely deny it when he spoke to the Washington Post in November, telling the newspaper that they avoided taking resources intended for children.
The Israeli military is supplying Abu Shabab’s organization with light weapons and assault rifles. In a statement online, Abu Shabab’s group announced that they were assisting in the supply of aid shipments at distribution centers managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The Post’s report also cited a UN document indicating that they “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or even “protection” from the Israeli military. An Al Jazeera report revealed that in May, a police officer in Gaza was killed by the Israeli military as he was chasing down a gang accused of collaborating with them.
Other prominent families have come out against these activities, with one issuing a statement after the incident in May saying that “these gangs act in alignment with the goals of the occupation.”
“We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What’s wrong with that?” Netanyahu said in his social media post owning up to the collaboration. “It’s only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.” Defense Minister Lieberman views things differently: “ultimately, these weapons will be turned against us.”
