Is Israel using Gaza tribal militias to help ethnic cleansing?

In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to arming and supporting the Popular Forces militia successful Gaza to reason Hamas.

“What’s incorrect with this?” helium said successful a abbreviated video helium tweeted. “It lone saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.”

He did not clarify what the Popular Forces would bash exactly, but experts judge Israel is backing the militia and its leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, to enactment a Palestinian look connected the taste cleansing of Gaza.

The 31-year-old Abu Shabab, a antecedently chartless subordinate of Gaza’s Tarabin Bedouin tribe, escaped situation astir October 7, having been imprisoned since 2015 for drug-related charges.

Drugs are reportedly smuggled into Gaza done Egypt’s Sinai and, according to analysts, are tally by ISIL-affiliated groups. This has led to a wide content that Abu Shabab has ISIL (ISIS) links.

But Abu Shabab’s alleged affiliation with ISIL has not been an contented for Israel; analysts accidental it is utilizing him to beforehand its taste cleansing plans successful Gaza.

Abu Shabab emerges

Abu Shabab, who leads the 100-man-strong Popular Forces militia, is an simple schoolhouse dropout, according to Muhammad Shehada, a visiting chap with the European Council connected Foreign Relations.

Despite this, helium has a blase and multilingual societal media presence, and helium precocious penned an op-ed successful the Wall Street Journal claiming that Palestinians successful Gaza were done with Hamas.

Analysts judge his refined media beingness is apt honed extracurricular Gaza.

“He’s not been successful interaction with nine for the past decade,” Shehada said. “He’s a nobody. He’s fundamentally a beforehand guy.”

His ain tribe, the Tarabin, does not o.k. of his relation successful Gaza today, making a uncommon nationalist connection disavowing him for allegedly collaborating with Israel.

Abu Shabab began to emergence to prominence successful precocious May 2024 aft Israel invaded Rafah, successful confederate Gaza.

“His pack emerges a period aboriginal and becomes the main pack that loots the overwhelming bulk of nutrient and assistance that’s going into Gaza systematically nether [Israeli military] protection,” Shehada said.

About 9 retired of 10 trucks entering Gaza person been looted, according to United Nations statistics. Israel initially blamed Hamas for the looting, but humanitarian groups refuted that claim, and adjacent the Israeli subject was incapable to find immoderate impervious that that was the case.

Instead, planetary assistance workers say it was Abu Shabab who was systematically looting the aid.

An interior UN memo obtained by the Washington Post specifically named Abu Shabab “the main and astir influential stakeholder down systematic and monolithic looting” successful Gaza.

Palestinians conflict to get nutrient and humanitarian assistance from the backmost of a motortruck arsenic it moves on the Morag Corridor adjacent Rafah, successful the confederate Gaza Strip, Monday, August 4, 2025 [Mariam Dagga/AP]

During the little ceasefire that Israel unilaterally broke successful March, Abu Shabab disappeared, lone to reappear successful mid-May erstwhile Israel, nether immense planetary pressure, started to let a trickle of aid backmost into Gaza.

“Literally connected that day, helium emerges again retired of nowhere,” Shehada said.

“He’s been the look of Israel’s hunger campaign,” Shehada said, “while giving Israel afloat deniability of it and outsourcing the thing.”

A Palestinian look to taste cleansing

Beyond the stealing of assistance meant for starving Palestinians, analysts said Abu Shabab and his militia are contributing to a wider Israeli program to ethnically cleanse Gaza, which has been intensifying this year.

“Israel is successful the process of trying to physique up the militias associated with Abu Shabab successful hopes that they tin grow the attraction campy zones implicit which those militias tin operate/control truthful that Israel tin trim the load of concern portion facilitating the taste cleansing,” Tariq Kenney Shawa, the US argumentation chap astatine Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian argumentation network, told Al Jazeera.

In aboriginal July, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a program to propulsion 600,000 Palestinians into tent cities successful confederate Gaza and called it “voluntary migration”. When Katz revealed the plan, it was wide panned by the Israeli media and humanitarians.

Abu Shabab’s militia has been gathering what analysts are calling attraction camps successful confederate Gaza, successful an effort to thrust much than fractional a cardinal Palestinians determination earlier being displaced to 3rd countries.

“The volition is to clasp them determination until an accidental arises to nonstop them elsewhere extracurricular of Gaza, beryllium that Egypt oregon immoderate fig of 3rd countries,” Omar Rahman, a chap astatine the Middle East Council connected Global Affairs, said.

Forcing Palestinians into an unbearably tiny country and past forcing them implicit the borderline into Egypt could spark superior planetary repercussions, arsenic the Egyptians person rejected displacing Palestinians.

“Israel understands that if the [Israeli army] operates a attraction campy successful Rafah, it wouldn’t look precise nice,” Shehada told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel would similar “a Palestinian look that’s dressed successful Palestinian uniforms with a Palestinian emblem and speaking successful Arabic” arsenic the look of specified an operation.

In addition, helium said, Abu Shabab has “two precise well-oiled Facebook propaganda machineries” that could person hopeless radical to question structure successful his camps, “especially if Israel [begins] forcefully pushing radical there.”

“Abu Shabab’s militia is moving smaller attraction camps wrong areas Israel controls and has advertised them arsenic ‘safe havens’ for radical to travel get assistance and acceptable up tents and such,” Kenney Shawa said.

Taking vantage of desperation

This process has been bolstered by the US and Israel-backed GHF, which Israel is trying to enforce arsenic the sole distributor of assistance successful Gaza.

But the GHF has been wide lambasted by assistance groups and the UN for politicising aid, and Israeli soldiers sprout astatine bare Palestinians each time arsenic they effort to unafraid assistance for their families. More than 1,000 Palestinians person been killed astatine the GHF’s organisation centres since May.

Worsening the concern is that, alternatively of immoderate 400 assistance organisation points that the UNRWA utilized to run successful Gaza, the GHF has lone four sites successful the full Gaza Strip.

Tellingly, 3 of those are successful the south, with lone 1 successful cardinal Gaza, starring analysts to judge the sites were selected intentionally by Israeli authorities.

“Survival depends connected nutrient access,” Rahman said. “The full intent of GHF is to unit the colonisation to relocate.”

A Palestinian antheral carries the shrouded assemblage of a Palestinian killed successful Israeli attacks for burial astatine the Nasser Hospital successful Khan Younis, Gaza, connected August 5, 2025 [Khames Alrefi/Anadolu Agency]