Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza brand local Abu Shabab gang “traitors for hire”

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The local armed gang Abu Shabab was branded “traitors for hire” in a statement from the Joint Operations Room of the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, July 6, after the militia’s leader admitted to collaborating with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

The resistance factions labeled Yasser Abu Shabab, who leads the gang, a “mercenary traitor” who, alongside his gang, “deviated from the homeland’s path”.

The Joint Operations Room, which consists of 12 military wings affiliated with various Palestinian resistance factions, including Hamas, warned that the Israeli-backed gang would receive “no mercy” along with “those who follow their path of aiding the occupation”.

The mob boss confesses to collaboration with the IOF

The statement was released by the Palestinian resistance shortly after Israeli media outlets published quotes from an interview, conducted by Israeli Arabic-language radio Makan with Yasser Abu Shabab.

“We’ve tasted the bitterness and injustice inflicted on us by Hamas, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to confront this aggression. We don’t rule out confrontation with Hamas and we don’t rule out civil war, no matter the cost,” Abu Shabab said during the interview.

“We didn’t have any security like we do in zones under Israeli control. We entered these areas and carried out operations beyond expectations. As long as the goal is support and assistance [to the IDF], and nothing more, when we go on a mission, we inform them — nothing beyond that — and we carry out the military operation,” the head of the militia confessed.

Israel’s recruitment of Abu Shabab and other armed clans in the besieged enclave was previously exposed in June, when Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of arming ISIS-linked militias in Gaza.

Netanyahu responded to Liberman in a video posted on X: “On the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas,” the PM said.

“What’s wrong with this? This is only good and saves the lives of IDF soldiers,” he added.

Gaza’s revolutionary court gave Yasser Abu Shabab 10 days to surrender prior to his confessions

On Wednesday, July 2, the Revolutionary Court under the Military Judiciary in Gaza gave Yasser Abu Shabab a 10-day deadline to surrender himself to stand trial over charges of “treason and collaboration with hostile entities, forming an armed gang, and leading an armed rebellion.”

Abu Shabab’s infamous militia has reportedly conspired with the IOF to commit multiple crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza, including killing civilians, targeting Palestinian resistance fighters, and looting humanitarian aid amid Israel’s four-month blockade and starvation of the people in Gaza.

The court also urged Palestinians to report the whereabouts of Abu Shabab, who is believed to be in an IOF-controlled area in Rafah in southern Gaza, to the concerned authorities.

Yasser Abu Shabab’s long rap sheet

Abu Shabab, who calls his gang the “Popular Forces”, was arrested by Hamas in 2015 and sentenced to 25 years in prison on drug trafficking charges.

However, days after Israel started its genocidal aggression on Gaza, in October 2023, he escaped Asda prison in western Khan Younis as Israeli airstrikes hit the area. The details of his escape are still unknown.

Since then, Abu Shabab has formed a militia consisting of hundreds of men that has taken control of an area near the Kerem Shalom crossing, which connects Gaza, Israel, and Egypt. 

The Washington Post leaked the content of a UN memo in November 2024, which identified Abu Shabab as a main aid looter, who has operated under “passive or active” protection of the IOF.

Multiple sources reported to Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a number of activities that Abu Shabab’s gang has carried out during the ongoing genocide:

• Looting UN aid under IOF protection, storing it in warehouses, and selling some on the black market.
• Securing aid for the US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been accused of involvement in the IOF’s massacres of hundreds of starved people at aid delivery points.
• Carrying out reconnaissance missions on behalf of the IOF.
• Establishing concentration camps on behalf of the IOF in eastern Rafah, using looted food to lure Palestinians.
• Acting as a proxy militia against Hamas in areas depopulated by Israel.

In June, the gang claimed affiliation with what it called “Palestinian legitimacy” – presumably the Palestinian Authority, which resistance factions have denounced as an institution that “serves the interests of the enemy”. Yet, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, Major General Anwar Rajab, denied any association with Abu Shabab.

“Operation Gideon’s Chariots” fell flat at the hands of Palestinian resistance

Israel launched its “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” deadly ground operation on May 18, in a bid to pressure Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. The operation has been confronted by intensified military operations by the Palestinian resistance, who have inflicted considerable losses on the IOF and left dozens of its soldiers dead.

The most recent of these operations was an ambush carried out by the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, against the IOF in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, leaving five soldiers killed and at least 10 others wounded.

Analysts argue that the defeat of Gideon’s Chariots thus far by the resistance, has pushed Israel to recruit local criminal gangs in an effort to dismantle the resistance groups in Gaza by instigating a civil war.