In a small area of land in Rafah, a new group has emerged from the shadows of Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave.
Led by drug smugglers, aid looters and militants linked to groups across the border in Egypt, Popular Forces, as they call themselves, have been exercising their power in southern Gaza, under gang leader and former prisoner Yasser Abu Shabab.
Last month, the group created a new Facebook page, with slick videos and a new logo.
The marketing drive coincided with Israel admitting to arming Abu Shabab’s gang, in what appears to be an attempt to sow chaos and embolden anti-Hamas elements in Gaza.
Middle East Eye takes a look at Abu Shabab, his associates, and why Israel has chosen to lend its support.
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Who is Yasser Abu Shabab?
Yasser Abu Shabab, born in eastern Rafah in the early 1990s, hails from the influential Tarabin Bedouin tribe, which stretches across the Sinai, Gaza and southern Israel.
He dropped out of school at an early age, building a reputation for trafficking cigarettes, hashish and psychoactive drugs through tunnels and crossings into Gaza.
Family members say he smuggled items from Egypt and Israel.
In 2015, Hamas detained Abu Shabab on drug trafficking charges and eventually sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
But in October 2023, during the early days of the war on Gaza, Abu Shabab escaped the Asda prison in western Khan Younis, amid Israeli bombardment.
The circumstances around his escape remain murky.
What have his gang been doing during the war?
Following their escape, Abu Shabab and his allies assembled a few hundred men and called themselves the Popular Forces in Arabic.
The group exerts control over an area of southern Gaza near the Kerem Shalom crossing, which connects Gaza, Israel and Egypt.
Abu Shabab has said he leads “a group of citizens from this community who have volunteered to protect humanitarian aid from looting and corruption”.
On Facebook, the group describes itself as “a voice of truth against terrorism for a safe homeland for all”.
‘Their utility lies in their ability to destabilise Hamas from within’
– Andreas Krieg, security expert
A leaked UN memo described their base as a “military-like compound” in a zone “restricted, controlled and patrolled” by Israeli forces.
According to Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Abu Shabab’s gang is engaged in several activities. These include, he writes, looting UN aid and selling some of it on the black market; carrying out reconnaissance missions on behalf of Israeli authorities; and acting as a proxy militia for Israel in areas that it has depopulated.
It has also been accused of cooperating with the controversial Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
An unnamed diplomatic official told CNN that the GHF, whether directly or indirectly, had contact with Abu Shabab.
The scandal-ridden GHF has denied any involvement.
“We do have local Palestinian workers we are very proud of, but none is armed and they do not belong to Abu Shabab’s organisation,” it said.
In November, Abu Shabab admitted that his men had raided a few trucks. “We are taking trucks so we can eat, not so we can sell,” he said. “Every hungry person is taking aid.”
Several truck drivers have accused Abu Shabab’s forces of intercepting aid deliveries and forcing them to unload goods.
There were reports in early May that Israeli forces attacked shop owners and police officers who were attempting to protect shops from looting and chaos caused by the gangsters.
Asaad al-Kafarna, a police officer in Gaza, was killed by Israeli forces near a restaurant on 2 May after pursuing gangsters accused of looting and collaborating with Israel’s military.
How are the gang linked to Islamic State?
Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli opposition politician, recently said that Abu Shabab and his forces were connected to the Islamic State group, or Isis (IS).
Andreas Krieg, an academic at King’s College London and an expert on security, told MEE: “While some individuals from the tribe have been involved in smuggling and, in some cases, collaborated with Sinai-based Isis affiliates, the tribe itself is not ideologically aligned with jihadist groups.
“In fact, many Tarabin members in Sinai have fought against Isis alongside the Egyptian military.”
Key figures in Abu Shabab’s groups have longstanding links with militant groups.
One of them, Issam al-Nabahin, joined the Sinai chapter of IS in the mid-2010s.
According to media reports, he was part of a group of Palestinians who fought in the insurgency against Egypt’s army, and were involved in the killing of civilians.
Hamas and Egypt cooperated to arrest and kill the militants, but Nabahin evaded capture.
Nabahin re-emerged in 2023, when Hamas arrested him and sentenced him to death. But he escaped before his execution and has since resurfaced as part of Abu Shabab’s forces.
Another senior figure in the Popular Forces is Ghassan al-Dahini. He was formerly an official in the Army of Islam, a Palestinian group allied with IS in Sinai.
He reportedly managed smuggling and communications between the Army of Islam and militant groups in Sinai.
Dahini has been arrested at least twice by Hamas police in Gaza. During one arrest attempt, he killed a Palestinian policeman.
He, like Nabahin and Abu Shabab, escaped imprisonment following the outbreak of Israel’s war. He now serves as the deputy of the Popular Forces.
Why is Israel arming these gangsters?
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has admitted to arming Abu Shabab’s gang.
“”We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What’s wrong with that?” he said in a post on X last week. “It’s only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers.”
The gangs have been armed with Kalashnikovs and pistols that were taken by Israeli forces from Hamas and Hezbollah, according to Maariv.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Maariv reported, suggested that even if Abu Shabab were to turn around and point the weapons towards Israel, the effect would be negligible.
Krieg said that it was a “calculated strategy” to reduce Israel’s military and administrative burden in Gaza by “cultivating local surrogate actors”.
“By leveraging tribal networks and local knowledge, groups like the Popular Forces enable Israel to exert indirect control while avoiding the reputational and operational costs of reoccupation,” he said.
What has been the impact on Hamas?
Krieg said that the presence of the Popular Front forces Hamas to fight on multiple fronts, undermining its monopoly on coercive power.
“Although the Popular Forces lack popular legitimacy and are widely seen as criminal collaborators, their utility lies in their ability to destabilise Hamas from within,” said Krieg.
Hamas has killed at least 50 members of Abu Shabab’s forces, the group said earlier this week.
Ynet reported that Abu Shabab’s militia had killed six members of Hamas’ “Arrow” unit, which is responsible for targeting collaborators with Israel.
Israeli media also reported that an Israeli drone strike targeted Hamas fighters while they were clashing with members of Abu Shabab’s militia.
Do the Popular Forces have support beyond Israel?
It is not immediately clear if the gang has other external backers.
Since May, the group has created social media accounts and posted professionally produced propaganda videos, which may have been made with outside help.
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“While direct evidence of regional sponsorship is lacking, there are suggestive indicators,” said Krieg.
One of Abu Shabab’s militiamen was recently pictured driving a vehicle with an Emirati number plate, “an unusual and conspicuous detail in the context of besieged Gaza,” according to Krieg.
“This, combined with his group’s anti-Hamas posture, has fuelled speculation that actors aligned with the UAE, which has a well-documented history of supporting anti-Islamist surrogates in Libya, Yemen and Sudan, may be involved indirectly,” he said. There is no direct evidence of UAE backing.
A Palestinian official told i24news that an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was directly communicating with the gang.
Abu Shabab’s gang has said that it is working under the umbrella of “Palestinian legitimacy”, a phrase often used by leaders of Fatah, who are longstanding rivals of Hamas.
PA spokesperson Anwar Rajab has denied any connection between the PA and Abu Shabab.
Will the Popular Front have a post-war role?
As things stand, it appears unlikely that the Popular Forces will play any serious long-term role in Gaza after the war.
Military sources told Maariv that Israeli support was only part of a short-term tactical move. “These gangs cannot be a substitute for a long-term strategic plan. As an alternative to Hamas, a move must be built with countries in the region that will build a governing structure that will replace Hamas,” one source said.
‘Israel has a long track record of inadvertently creating surrogate Frankenstein monsters’
– Andreas Krieg, security expert
According to Krieg, the militia is too small, criminally tainted and politically toxic to serve as a viable governing force.
“Their limited size and lack of legitimacy among Palestinians, compounded by their open collaboration with Israeli forces, render them structurally incapable of administering territory or managing civil affairs in a sustainable way,” he said.
Krieg added that Israel had no incentive to formalise relations with a group whose existence could disrupt broader diplomatic efforts with Arab states.
“But Israel has a long track record of inadvertently creating surrogate Frankenstein monsters in the short-term that then develop lives of their own.”
