Israel backs anti-Hamas militia known for looting aid in Gaza. Here’s what we know

JERUSALEM — Israel is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in Gaza in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. But officials from the U.N. and aid organizations say the military is allowing them to loot food and other supplies from their trucks.

One self-styled militia that calls itself the Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, says it is guarding newly created, Israeli-backed food distribution centers in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting U.N. trucks.

Gaza’s armed groups have ties to powerful clans or extended families and often operate as criminal gangs. Aid workers allege Israel’s backing of the groups is part of a wider effort to control all aid operations in the strip.

Israel denies allowing looters to operate in areas it controls.

Here’s what we know about anti-Hamas armed groups in Gaza:

Who are these groups?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media video Thursday that Israel had “activated” clans in Gaza to oppose Hamas.

He didn’t elaborate how Israel is supporting them or what role Israel wants them to play. Netanyahu’s comments were in response to a political opponent accusing him of arming “crime families” in Gaza.

Clans, tribes and extended families have strong influence in Gaza, where their leaders often help mediate disputes. Some have long been armed to protect their group’s interests, and some have morphed into gangs involved in smuggling drugs or running protection rackets.

After seizing power in 2007, Hamas clamped down on Gaza’s gangs — sometimes with brute force and sometimes by steering perks their way.

But with Hamas’ weakening power after 20 months of war with Israel, gangs have regained freedom to act. The leadership of a number of clans — including the clan from which the Abu Shabab group’s members hail — have issued statements denouncing looting and cooperation with Israel.

A self-proclaimed ‘nationalist force’

Besides the Abu Shabab group, it is not known how many armed groups Israel is supporting.

The Abu Shabab group went public in early May, declaring itself a “nationalist force.” It said it was protecting aid, including around the food distribution hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a mainly American private contractor that Israel intends to replace the U.N.-led aid network. Aid workers and Palestinians who know the group estimate it has several hundred fighters.

The Abu Shabab group’s media office told the Associated Press it was collaborating with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “to ensure that the food and medicine reaches its beneficiaries.” It said it was not involved in distribution, but that its fighters secured the surroundings of distribution centers run by the foundation group inside military-controlled zones in the Rafah area.

A spokesperson with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had “no collaboration” with Abu Shabab.

“We do have local Palestinian workers we are very proud of, but none is armed, and they do not belong to Abu Shabab’s organization,” the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with the group’s rules.

Before the war, Yasser Abu Shabab was involved in smuggling cigarettes and drugs from Egypt and Israel into Gaza through crossings and tunnels, according to two members of his extended family, one of whom was once part of his group. Hamas arrested Abu Shabab but freed him from prison along with most other inmates when the war began in October 2023, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Abu Shabab’s media office said he was summoned by police before the war but wasn’t officially accused or tried. It also said claims the group was involved in attacking aid trucks were “exaggerated,” saying its fighters “took the minimum amount of food and water necessary.”

Aid workers say it is notorious for looting

The head of the association in Gaza that provides trucks and drivers for aid groups said their members’ vehicles have been attacked many times by Abu Shabab’s fighters.

Nahed Sheheiber said the group has been active in Israeli-controlled eastern parts of Rafah and Khan Yunis, targeting trucks as they enter Gaza from the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel. Troops nearby “did nothing” to stop attacks, he said.

Sheheiber said that when Hamas police officers have tried to confront gangs or guard truck convoys, they were attacked by Israeli troops.

One driver, Issam Abu Awda, said he was attacked by Abu Shabab fighters last July. The fighters stopped his truck, blindfolded and handcuffed him and his assistant, then loaded the supplies off the vehicle, he said. Abu Awda said nearby Israeli troops didn’t intervene.

These kinds of attacks are still happening and highlight “a disturbing pattern,” according to Jonathan Whittall, from the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, OCHA.

“Those who have blocked and violently ransacked aid trucks seem to have been protected” by Israeli forces, said Whittall, head of OCHA’s office for the occupied Palestinian territories. And, he added, they have now become the “protectors of the goods being distributed through Israel’s new militarized hubs,” referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation-run sites.

The Israeli military did not reply when asked for comment on allegations it has allowed armed groups to loot trucks. But the Israeli prime minister’s office called the accusations “fake news,” saying, “Israel didn’t allow looters to operate in Israeli controlled areas.”

Israel often accuses Hamas of stealing from trucks.

What does all this have to do with aid?

Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst from Gaza who is a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said he doesn’t believe Israel’s support for armed groups is aimed at directly fighting Hamas. So far there has been no attempt to deploy the groups against the militants.

Instead, he said, Israel is using the gangs and the looting to present the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “as the only alternative to provide food to Palestinians,” since its supplies get in while the U.N.’s don’t.

Israel wants the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to replace the U.N.-led aid system because it claims Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies. The U.N. denies that significant amounts have been taken by Hamas. Israel has also said it aims to move all Palestinians in Gaza to a “sterile zone” in the south, around the food hubs, while it fights Hamas elsewhere.

The U.N. and aid groups have rejected that as using food as a tool for forced displacement. The Abu Shabab group has issued videos online urging Palestinians to move to tent camps in Rafah.

Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for 2 ½ months pending the start of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation — a blockade that has brought the population to the brink of famine. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started distributing food boxes on May 26 at three hubs guarded by private contractors inside Israeli military zones.

Israel has let in some trucks of aid for the U.N. to distribute. But the U.N. says it has been able to get little of it into the hands of Palestinians because of Israeli military restrictions, including requiring its trucks to use roads where looters are known to operate.

“It’s Israel’s way of telling the U.N., if you want to try to bring aid into Gaza, good luck with this,” said Shehada. “We will force you to go through a road where everything you brought will be looted.”

Frankel, Mednick, Magdy and Keath write for the Associated Press. Magdy and Keath reported from Cairo.