\n<\/p>\n
The killing of Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab, confirmed by his Popular Forces group and by Israeli media, is the final chapter of a man who tried to present himself \u2013 with Israeli support \u2013 as an alternative to Hamas, but who was widely derided by Palestinians as a collaborator.<\/p>\n
In his early 30s and from southern Gaza\u2019s Bedouin Tarabin tribe, Abu Shabab was largely unknown in the Palestinian enclave until his emergence at the head of a militia last year. Initially called the \u201cAnti-Terror Service\u201d, by May this year it had popularised itself as the \u201cPopular Forces\u201d, a well-armed group of at least 100 fighters operating in Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The group operated somewhere between a criminal gang and an Israeli proxy force, but presented itself as a nationalist Palestinian group dedicated to fighting Hamas.<\/p>\n That branding served a purpose for Israel, even if its end goal for the group was never clear, particularly once it became evident that the Popular Forces lacked any form of mass popular appeal.<\/p>\n That was because, for many Palestinians, Abu Shabab was a criminal \u2013 he had been imprisoned by Palestinian authorities in Gaza for a number of years on drug-related charges prior to escaping from jail in the early part of the war on Gaza.<\/p>\n His subsequent alliance with Israel, as it committed a genocide in Gaza killing more than 70,120 people, was immediately disqualifying for most Palestinians \u2013 including his own tribe, who said in a statement that his killing served as \u201cthe end of a dark chapter that does not represent the history of the tribe\u201d.<\/p>\n Pinning down Abu Shabab\u2019s ideology is difficult, with many observers saying that he was driven by power rather than any particular political stance.<\/p>\n The initial branding of his group in the language of \u201canti-terrorism\u201d is somewhat ironic considering reports of his links to ISIL (ISIS), although they are mostly related to cooperation in smuggling from Egypt\u2019s Sinai Peninsula into Gaza, rather than any shared ideology.<\/p>\n There has also always been a disparity between Abu Shabab\u2019s background and his social media presence, with English-language posts and even an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n In that article, Abu Shabab claimed that his Popular Forces controlled large parts of eastern Rafah, in the south of Gaza, and were \u201cready to build a new future\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOur primary goal is to separate Palestinians who have nothing to do with Hamas from the fire of war,\u201d the article attributed to him said.<\/p>\n But while Abu Shabab attempted to downplay his links to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted in June that his government was using armed clans \u2013 which media reports made clear were Abu Shabab\u2019s forces \u2013 to fight Hamas.<\/p>\n The idea of using such forces was, according to Netanyahu, the result of advice from security officials, even after past failed attempts at working with local groups such as the South Lebanon Army in Israel\u2019s northern neighbour.<\/p>\n The Popular Forces has sought to portray itself as a group helping to distribute much-needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza, particularly at sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed GHF.<\/p>\n Abu Shabab told CNN that he led \u201ca group of citizens from this community who have volunteered to protect humanitarian aid from looting and corruption\u201d, and his group shares pictures of its forces distributing aid.<\/p>\n But Abu Shabab and the Popular Forces have since been accused of looting from aid convoys, with an internal United Nations memo seen by the Washington Post calling him \u201cthe main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting\u201d, and security sources in Gaza confirming to Al Jazeera Arabic that the Israeli-backed group had participated in looting.<\/p>\n Those accusations, as Gaza suffered from a famine brought on by Israeli restrictions on aid access and its destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, added to the perception that Abu Shabab was simply an Israeli proxy.<\/p>\n It is perhaps therefore not surprising that few Palestinians in Gaza \u2013 even those opposed to Hamas \u2013 have shed tears over Abu Shabab\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n The circumstances of that killing continue to be murky \u2013 much like Abu Shabab\u2019s origins and his role during the war.<\/p>\n But ultimately, as it became clear that he did not have the support or power to be a genuine alternative to Hamas, his fate seemed increasingly sealed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The killing of Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab, confirmed by his Popular Forces group and by Israeli media, is the final chapter of a man who tried to present himself \u2013 with Israeli support \u2013 as an alternative to Hamas, but who was widely derided by Palestinians as a collaborator. In his early 30s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Ideological ambiguity<\/h2>\n
Looting<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"