AhlulBayt News Agency: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that Israel has been arming and supporting a gang linked to Daesh in Gaza, claiming it is part of efforts to counter Hamas.
The revelation follows statements by Avigdor Lieberman, a Knesset member and former minister of military affairs, who disclosed that Israel had transferred weapons to criminal gangs.
“What did Lieberman leak? That security sources activated a clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas? What is bad about that?” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media.
“It is only good, it is saving the lives of Israeli soldiers,” he added.
The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) stated that the criminal gang operating in Rafah is widely accused of looting aid trucks.
Netanyahu’s office did not deny the allegations, merely stating that “Israel is taking various steps to defeat Hamas, based on the recommendations of all security agency heads.”
Netanyahu also confirmed that Israel had “activated” local clans in Gaza on the advice of security officials.
The group Lieberman referred to is a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab.
Lieberman told Kan public broadcaster that Israeli authorities, under Netanyahu’s direction, were arming a criminal group.
“Under the prime minister’s orders, Israel is transferring weapons to criminals in Gaza affiliated with Daesh, as a counterbalance to Hamas,” Lieberman stated.
“As far as I can tell, this wasn’t approved by the cabinet, and I’m not sure the military chief of staff even knows about it.”
The Abu Shabab clan is part of a Bedouin tribe spanning Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Yasser Abu Shabab, head of the Daesh-affiliated Abu Shabab clan, previously spent time in prison in Gaza, and his clan chiefs recently denounced him as an Israeli “collaborator and gangster.”
Evidence of the group’s role in Israel’s military campaign led elders and leaders of the Abu Shabab family to publicly disavow the group.
The ECFR reported that Abu Shabab was previously jailed by Hamas for drug smuggling, and his brother was killed by Hamas during a crackdown on attacks against UN aid convoys.
Hamas has killed several members of the gang in recent days, stating that the group had “chosen betrayal and theft as their path.”
Hamas also claimed to have evidence of clear coordination between looting gangs, Israeli collaborators, and the Israeli army, accusing them of fabricating humanitarian crises to deepen Palestinian suffering.
Hamas said Lieberman’s remarks expose a dangerous truth—that Israel is arming criminal gangs in Gaza to create security and social chaos, advancing its plans for systematic starvation and theft of humanitarian aid.
Senior Israeli commanders have warned that Israel’s armed forces lack the manpower and resources to achieve their goals in Gaza. They say Hamas remains in control of Gaza, even nearly two years into Israel’s military campaign.
Israeli intelligence estimates that approximately 20,000 Hamas fighters, including several commanders, remain active across Gaza.
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