An armed group within a Bedouin tribe has emerged as a powerful – and highly controversial – supporter of Israel in its war against Hamas and its aid blockade on Gaza.
Israeli officials admitted they were supporting a clan, led by the tribesman Yasser Abu Shabab, after a former minister revealed Israel had transferred weapons to "a group of criminals and felons".
But international humanitarian groups and Palestinian sources have accused the group of "looting aid trucks in the war-torn territory", said France24 – and Israel of allowing it to do so. Shabab is the leader of a "criminal gang" in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
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The 'Popular Forces'
Clans and tribes have "strong influence in Gaza" and some have "long been armed to protect their group's interests", said The Washington Post. Others have "morphed into gangs involved in smuggling drugs or running protection rackets". Hamas "clamped down" on such groups after taking control of the Strip. But Israel's bombardment has weakened Hamas and gangs have "regained freedom to act".
Shabab's "self-styled militia" went public in May, claiming it is "guarding" new food distribution centres in Gaza, including those run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It calls itself the "Popular Forces" (formerly the "Anti-Terrorism Unit").
Shabab, "reportedly a well-connected figure in Rafah", is linked to the "powerful" Bedouin Hamashah clan, said The New Arab. His militia is said to have "evolved from a loosely organised criminal group into a Salafi-jihadist group" inspired by Islamic State. Palestinians have accused it of "spreading lawlessness under the guise of fighting Hamas". Some tribal alliances have "expelled" the group for "collaborating" with the Israeli army.
The former defence minister and current Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman revealed Israel's involvement with the group last week, claiming that Benjamin Netanyahu had been directing the government to arm "a group of criminals and felons". He warned that "ultimately, these weapons will be turned against us".
Shabab served time in a Gaza prison and his clan chiefs denounced him as an Israeli "collaborator and a gangster", Palestinian affairs expert Michael Milshtein told AFP. Either the Shabak (Israeli security agency) or the military seemingly "thought it was a wonderful idea" to turn this militia "into a proxy, to give them weapons and money and shelter" from army operations, Milshtein said.
Israel's decision to arm such a group was "a fantasy, not something that you can really describe as a strategy", he added. "I really hope it will not end with catastrophe."
'The only alternative' to UN aid
Israel has "activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas", Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media earlier this month in response to Lieberman's claims. "What is bad about that?"
The Israeli prime minister did not provide any details on how the government was backing the group. Israel's army spokesperson confirmed that the military supported arming local militias in Gaza, but also "remained tight-lipped on the details", said France24.
Rather than to counter Hamas, Israel is using the gang to present the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as "the only alternative" to UN food supplies, Muhammad Shehada, political analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post. "It's Israel's way of telling the UN, if you want to try to bring aid into Gaza, good luck with this," he said. "We will force you to go through a road where everything you brought will be looted."
Hamas has strongly condemned the group, saying there was evidence of "clear coordination between these looting gangs, collaborators with the occupation [Israel], and the enemy army itself in the looting of aid and the fabrication of humanitarian crises". Hamas said the group had "chosen betrayal and theft as their path", and called on civilians to oppose them.
The Popular Forces wrote on Facebook that it had "never been, and will never be, a tool of the occupation". "Our weapons are simple, outdated, and came through the support of our own people," the statement said.
