The leader of an Israeli-armed and supported anti-Hamas group has been killed in Gaza, the organization confirmed on Thursday, potentially dealing a blow to Israel’s postwar plans in the fallen territory.
The group said Yasser Abu Shabab, who led a militia that controlled parts of southern Gaza’s Rafah, was killed while trying to “de-escalate a conflict” between families in a public square. An Israeli official earlier said the death was the result of an “internal conflict.”
Two Israeli officials said Israel tried to evacuate Abu Shabaab to a hospital in the country’s south before he was declared dead.
Abu Shabaab is the most powerful leader of several Israeli-backed armed groups in the Gaza Strip, and his death could be a setback for Israel’s still-murky plans for the enclave’s future. Abu Shabab, now in its early 30s, appeared to be slowly gaining ground in southern Gaza, trying to carve out a Hamas-free zone. Israel intended to use the Abu Shabaab militia to weaken Hamas as an alternative to the extremist group’s Islamist rule.
Israel also planned to use the Abu Shabaab organization, which he called the “People’s Army,” to secure reconstruction projects within the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in the next phase of the ceasefire agreement. In the final months of the war, Abu Shabaab helped control the flow of aid from the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza.
Hamas had previously vowed to target Abu Shabab and called him a traitor, but did not explicitly claim responsibility for his death. The extremist group said he faced “the inevitable fate of those who agree to become agents of the occupation and betray their people and homeland.”
In a statement, Hamas praised Abu Shabab and all those who had condemned its “cooperation” with Israel.
Hamas “underlines that it cannot protect its collaborators, just as the occupation forces have failed to protect their agents,” it added.
The People’s Army stressed that Abu Shabab was not killed by Hamas.
“We strongly reject all misleading reports suggesting that the General Leader was assassinated by thugs from the terrorist organization Hamas, as he was too weak to overthrow him,” the group said in a statement.
Photos circulated in multiple Gaza messaging groups showed scores of Palestinians celebrating the death of Abu Shabaab. One photo obtained by CNN shows Abu Shabaab with a red “X” on his face and someone calling him a “pig.”
Abu Shabab is the leader of one of several loosely organized Palestinian gangs supported by Israel in Gaza, with most of its members remaining within the enclave’s Israeli-occupied territory.
Mohammad Shehada, a Gaza expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Abu Shabab group, which claims to number in the hundreds, would soon retreat to Israeli protection after carrying out attacks in Hamas-held areas.
In the absence of a post-war governance plan for Gaza, Israel supports these armed groups and stakes out small territories in various parts of the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the gangs a “good thing” even as his political opponents attacked him for supplying weapons to “Gaza’s equivalent of ISIS.”
Two Israeli officials told CNN in June that ongoing armed operations against groups including Abu Shabaab were authorized without approval from the security cabinet.
