Netanyahu confirms Israel arming Gaza clans to undermine Hamas

Israel has been arming Gazan factions opposed to Hamas in a bid to undermine the militant group’s rule, Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed.

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The prime minister’s comments came after Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the rightwing opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, said on Thursday that “the state of Israel is providing weapons to a group of criminals and felons . . . to serve as a counterweight to Hamas”.

Netanyahu later confirmed Lieberman’s claim, saying Israel was “activating clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas”.

“What’s wrong with that?” he said. “It’s only good, it saves the lives of [Israeli] soldiers.” His office said: “Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various and diverse ways, on the recommendation of all the heads of the security establishment.”

Lieberman argued that weapons given to armed factions would eventually be turned on Israel.

Two people familiar with the matter said Israeli military and intelligence officers had since the early days of the war — which started after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack — worked to identify and support potential Palestinian rivals to undermine the militant group.

Hamas on Thursday issued a statement saying the comments by Israeli leaders proved Israel was “arming criminal gangs in Gaza with the goal of creating social and security chaos”.

UN officials and Gaza transport industry insiders have previously said armed gangs of aid looters have operated in Israeli-controlled areas of south Gaza with the Israel Defense Forces’ tacit support.

The most notorious of these gangsters, Yasser Abu Shabab, has in recent weeks appeared to rebrand himself and his forces — which have operated around the Israeli-controlled city of Rafah in southern Gaza — as populist crusaders protecting civilians, guarding aid and countering Hamas.

In one photo recently posted on a Facebook page in his name, Abu Shabab — who for much of the war ran a lucrative racket looting aid convoys — stands by the roadside in a helmet and flak jacket with an M16 rifle, waving UN vehicles through.

“Our popular forces were formed to defend our people from the oppression and terrorism of the de facto [Hamas] government and to confront chaos and corruption,” a voice says in a video posted on the Facebook page this week.

People working in Gaza say there is little clarity about the true nature of the militia’s current activities on the ground.

One local truck driver transiting through the area said he recently saw who he believed to be Abu Shabab, armed.

Israeli, Palestinian and international officials say such a militia could not operate without the awareness of the IDF, which has subsumed Rafah into a militarised zone as part of its ongoing offensive.

“There is no chance an armed militia or clan can work out in the open like this without Israel’s agreement, and definitely not in Rafah,” said Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer.

One logistics manager for an international organisation described Abu Shabab as “a traffic cop with Israeli protection, nothing more”.

The IDF declined to comment on its ties to Abu Shabab’s group. When contacted via their Facebook page, a person describing themselves as a media representative for the Yasser Abu Shabab Popular Forces denied the group worked with the Israeli army.

Other Israeli efforts to build up potential rivals to Hamas have had limited success, with popular opinion turning against those seen as Israeli agents. Israeli and Palestinian security officials have said Hamas has killed alleged collaborators.

Lieberman’s claim and the prime minister’s response come as Israel works to carve out a “sterile” Hamas-free zone in south Gaza, stretching from the Egyptian border to the city of Khan Younis.

A video on Abu Shabab’s Facebook page recently called on families from eastern Rafah to return to the area, promising food and housing would be provided and claiming that large areas had been “purified”.

In addition to the military campaign, which has razed and depopulated much of the area, Israel has sought to overhaul aid distribution, backing a controversial scheme by the private Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to hand out aid under the supervision of security contractors and Israeli soldiers.

Israel says the new system is necessary to ensure Hamas is unable to divert aid and prop up its regime. But UN officials and others have refused to participate in the scheme, calling it a “weaponisation” of aid and saying they have not seen evidence of systematic diversion by Hamas.

Dozens of people have been killed on their way to get aid in recent days, according to Gaza’s health ministry and aid officials.

Israeli officials say they plan to extend the “Rafah model” of Hamas-free zones to other parts of Gaza, arguing it will help them towards their goal of destroying Hamas.

Hamas on Thursday warned that “these gangs operate under direct Israeli security oversight and are cheap tools in the hands of the enemy . . . and will be pursued and held accountable by our people’s forces”.