The death of Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab, who had been receiving support from his Popular Forces organization and Israeli media, is the final chapter of a man who attempted to stand up for Israel against Hamas but who was widely derided as a collaborator.
Before joining a militia last year, Abu Shabab, who was in his early 30s and from the Bedouin Tarabin tribe in southern Gaza, was largely unheard in the Palestinian enclave. By the end of May, the organization had become known as the “Popular Forces,” a well-armed group of at least 100 fighters operating in Gaza’s under-terrorized areas.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
The organization presented itself as a nationalist Palestinian organization dedicated to combating Hamas despite operating between a criminal gang and an Israeli proxy force.
Even though the group’s end goal was never fully understood, that branding served an Israeli purpose, especially once it became clear that the Popular Forces lacked any form of widespread appeal.
Abu Shabab was a criminal, according to many Palestinians, because he had been incarcerated by the Palestinians in Gaza for a number of years on drug-related charges before escaping prison in the beginning of the Gaza war.
His subsequent alliance with Israel, which killed more than 70 Palestinians and 120 others in a genocide in Gaza, immediately disqualified for the majority of Palestinians, including his own tribe, who claimed in a statement that his death marked “the end of a dark chapter that does not represent the history of the tribe.”
Ideological ambiguity
It’s challenging to pin down Abu Shabab’s ideology because many observers believe he was motivated by power rather than a particular political stance.
Given the reports of his connections to ISIL (ISIS), which are mostly related to cooperation in smuggling from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to Gaza, rather than any shared ideology, the initial branding of his group in the language of “anti-terrorism” is ironic.
Abu Shabab’s social media background and background, with English-language posts and even an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal, have always been at odds with one another.
In that article, Abu Shabab claimed that his Popular Forces were “ready to build a new future” and that they were in charge of a significant portion of southern Rafah.
The article he was quoted as saying, “Our main goal is to separate Palestinians from the fire of war from Hamas.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in June that his government was using armed clans to fight Hamas while Abu Shabab made an effort to minimize his ties to Israel.
Even after previous unsuccessful attempts to collaborate with local organizations like the South Lebanon Army in Israel’s northern neighbor, security officials gave rise to the idea of using such forces, according to Netanyahu.
Looting
The Popular Forces has attempted to present itself as a group supporting the US- and Israeli-backed GHF in distributing much-needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Abu Shabab shared images of its forces dispersing aid with CNN and that he was in charge of “a group of citizens from this community who have volunteered to protect humanitarian aid from corruption and looting.”
However, security sources in Gaza confirmed to Al Jazeera Arabic that Abu Shabab and the Popular Forces had since been accused of looting aid convoys, with an internal UN memo claiming him to be “the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting.”
As Gaza experienced a famine brought on by Israeli restrictions on aid entry and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, those accusations made it seem like Abu Shabab was merely an Israeli proxy.
Perhaps it isn’t surprising that few Palestinians in Gaza, even those opposed to Hamas, are teary about Abu Shabab’s murder.
Similar to Abu Shabab’s origins and his role in the war, the circumstances surrounding that killing continue to be murky.
