Netanyahu admits to Israel arming criminal gangs in Gaza to ‘drive lawlessness’

Middle East Eye

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that his country is arming violent criminal gangs in Gaza which have been accused by aid groups of stealing lifesaving humanitarian aid in a bid to counter the Palestinian movement Hamas.

Netanyahu said on Thursday his government had ‘activated’ powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of ‘security officials,’ hours after former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman alleged the gang that Israel was backing was affiliated with the Islamic State group.

‘We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What’s wrong with that?’ Netanyahu said in a video posted on X.

‘It’s only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.’

Hours earlier, Netanyahu’s office said that ‘Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment.’

Satellite images and videos seen by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz showed that the gang Israel is backing had expanded its presence in southern Gaza, and was operating inside an area under the direct control of the Israeli army.

According to media reports, the gang is reportedly led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family, known locally for his involvement in criminal drug trafficking and the looting of humanitarian aid.

Abu Shabab’s gang, which calls itself the ‘Anti-Terror Service,’ is believed to consist of around 100 armed men. The Times of Israel reported on Thursday, citing defence sources, that Israel had provided members of the gang with Kalashnikov assault rifles, including some weapons seized from Hamas.

Hours earlier, Lieberman, an opposition lawmaker, alleged that Abu Shabab’s gang was affiliated with the Islamic State group.

‘The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister,’ Lieberman, who heads the opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party, told Kan Bet public radio.

‘To my knowledge, this did not go through approval by the cabinet.’

Hamas officials told Reuters that Abu Shabab was wanted for ‘collaborating with the occupation against his people’. The officials said Hamas fighters had killed at least two dozen of Abu Shabab’s men before January, after they had allegedly looted aid trucks.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif reported in early May that Israeli forces attacked shop owners and local Gaza security teams who were attempting to protect shops from looting and chaos. 

Asaad al-Kafarna, a police officer in Gaza, was killed by Israeli forces near a restaurant on 2 May after pursuing armed looters accused of collaborating with Israel’s military. 

In response to such looting by gangs, a number of influential families in Gaza published statements denouncing the scenes. 

‘These gangs act in alignment with the goals of the occupation,’ the Madhoun family wrote at the time. 

In November, an internal UN memo obtained by the Washington Post revealed that the gangs ‘may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence’ or ‘protection’ from Israeli troops. 

One such gang leader, according to the memo, established a ‘military-like compound’ in an area ‘restricted, controlled and patrolled’ by Israel’s military. 

Commentators have suggested that by backing criminal gangs and targeting members of Gaza’s civil administration, Israel was attempting to create a power vacuum and thus lawlessness. 

Earlier this month, the Abu Shabab family renounced Yasser over his connections to the Israeli military, saying he and anyone who joined his group ‘are no longer linked’ to the family.