Israel activated the anti-Hamas militias in the Gaza strip. Who is the leader of popular forces

Yasser Abu Shabab is the leader of the emerging militia called the popular forces, whose purpose, he says, is to provide protection to international organizations working in the south of Gaza.

Militia Popular Forces in the Gaza strip would be armed by Israel Photo Facebook

A 30-year-old man, Abu Shabab comes from a family of prominent Bedouins in the south of the gas. Closed by the Islamist Hamas movement for drug trafficking, it was released after the war broke out.

Now, his militia controls the aid routes near the Kerem Shalom crossing point, providing people to protect convoys against robberies, a situation that has worsened since limited aids have started to enter Gaza in mid -May, following the blockade imposed by the Israeli army.

Abu Shabab told CNN that he leads “a group of citizens in this community who have been offered volunteers to protect humanitarian help from robberies and corruption.”

But in reality, the situation is a little more complicated.

Israel armed the militades to lose Hamas

Israeli officials have acknowledged that they provided weapons to Abu Shabab's militia, as part of an operation to army of local groups to counteract the influence of Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the secret measure earlier this week, explaining that the security forces “activated clans in Gaza who oppose Hamas.” He did not mention Abu Shabab, but Israeli officials told CNN that Abu Shabab is part of the program.

Abu Shabab insisted on CNN that his people did not receive weapons from the Israelis. “Our equipment is extremely simple, transmitted by volunteers from their ancestors or assembled from limited local resources.”

On the other side, Hamas says Abu Shabab is a traitor and a gangster. Last week, the group stated: “We promise before God to continue to confront the beams of that criminal and his gang, regardless of the cost of the sacrifices we make.”

Hamas killed his brother last year and tried to kill Abu Shabab at least twice, according to Muhammad Shehada, an analyst for Gaza at the European Council for External Relations.

“Our forces do not engage in any form of communication with the Israeli army, neither direct nor indirect,” Abu Shabab insisted.

However, his evidence and presence in the areas controlled by Israel in Gaza shows something else.

A video at the end of May shows Abu Shabab stop a vehicle of the Red Cross and talking to an official. CNN geolocalized the meeting in a buffer zone controlled by Israel, near the crossing point at Kerem Shalom. Other videos show meetings with convoys of the United Nations in the same area.

Israel has so far not developed clear plans on how governance and security in Gaza could look like Hamas will be defeated. Israel has tried to find Hamas opposite groups or clans that could play a role, but more recently, Netanyahu and other ministers have approved a plan submitted by US President Donald Trump to relocate to Gaza residents and redevelop the territory.

How was the militia formed

Abu Shabab is present near the ruins of Rafah airport in Gaza, since the end of last year. Shehada from ECFR explained that although the armistice was valid earlier this year, its group seems to have disappeared.

But its role has increased in recent weeks, since the Israeli authorities have begun to allow a flow of aid to reach Gaza through Kerem Shalom. The presence of Abu Shabab on social networks, along with well -made videos and fluent comments in English, has expanded.

“It is almost impossible for this to be done in Gaza,” said Shehada. “Probably someone from the outside leads all this psycho-psychological operation.”

A diplomatic official told CNN that the UN had to deal with local elements while trying to distribute aid, whether or not they are supported by Hamas.

Abu Shabab “has under his control a few square kilometers in an area, and then we go to the next type,” said the official. “The fact that it is not targeted by Israelis is a clear indication of how they see it.”

The official also stated that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – the controversial new organization supported by the US, charged with the distribution of aid in Gaza – had contact with Abu Shabab, directly or indirectly.

Abu Shabab responded for CNN that “in terms of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, we emphasize that its activity will operate in a unified national framework and maintain continuous coordination with all legitimate parts.”

Guard of aid convoys

Last month, shortly after the limited aid began to enter Gaza, Abu Shabab wrote that his group provided 101 trucks with aid, largely flour, brought by the world food program and praised “my loyal brothers who sacrificed their lives and all those who offered their primitive weapons or a drop for a drop”.

The truck drivers told CNN that Shabab provided 200 armed people to protect the convoys.

“Our forces regularly accompany humanitarian convoys, and the protection of vulnerable civilians is one of our main priorities,” Abu Shabab told CNN.

However, the role of his group has expanded beyond the protection of convoys.

On May 17, the day before the reopening of the Kerem Shalom crossing point, the work began at a tent camp in the east of Rafah, according to the satellite images analyzed by CNN. Apparently, the works were completed on May 30.

The camp is less than 500 meters from the place where Abu Shabab guard the control points.

Four days later, the so-called folk forces issued a statement saying that Abu Shabab “invites the inhabitants of these areas to return, where they were provided food, drink, shelter, security and safety, they were set up shelter and humanitarian aid routes were opened.”

The camp is in an area known as the Morag corridor, where the Israeli army wants the inhabitants of Gaza to move, because it has given an evacuation order for a large part of the strip.

At the beginning of May, the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said the population of Gaza will be “concentrated” in a narrow strip between the border with Egypt and Corridor.

A high -ranking Israeli official in the field of security said, at the same time, that the purpose is to separate the humanitarian aid from that of Hamas “by involving civil companies and the creation of a secure area patrolled by IDF”.

This would include a “sterile area in the Rafah region, beyond the Morag route, where IDF will check all those who enter the area to prevent Hamas infiltration.”

Palestinian branding

Abu Shabab's forces predominantly use Palestinian flags and flags on their uniforms, but he told CNN that “I am not an official authority and we do not operate under a direct mandate from the Palestinian authority.”

The Palestinian Security Forces spokesman, General Anwar Rajab, told CNN that there is no connection between the Palestinian security apparatus and the group of Abu Shabab.

Nor does his family want to have anything to do with him.

“The leaders and elders of the family Abu Shabab” said in a statement that they faced him about videos that showed “Yasser's groups involved in dangerous security missions, even working in undercover units and supporting Zionist occupation forces that brutally kill our people.”

The family declared his “complete distance from Yasser Abu Shabab” and urged anyone to join his security groups to do the same.

“We have no objection for those around him to eliminate him immediately; we clearly declare that his blood is wasted,” the family statement shows.

Abu Shabab told CNN that the statement was “manufactured and false” and accompanied by “a media campaign that targeted me and my colleagues.”

He said that his group had to bear “false accusations and systematic denigration campaigns and I paid a heavy price”, claiming that Hamas killed several volunteers of the group “and members of my own family while guarding aid for international organizations”.

Muhammad Shehada from ECFR said that there is evidence that the presence of Abu Shabab extends with Israeli support in Khan Younis, north of his fortress.

Even so, its range is still limited. Popular forces talk about “hundreds of daily requests we receive on our Facebook page from people who want to join us”, but analysts believe that Abu Shabab probably has about 300 people under his command.

Most people in Gaza would never think of joining the fear of being labeled as collaborators, said Shehada.

Even so, he added, Abu Shabab's militia now performs multiple functions for Israelis, controlling where or not the aid; trying to attract desperate and hungry people in the so-called “safe area” in eastern Rafah; and carrying out high risk missions to detect the presence of Hamas fighters.