Jerusalem – Since Israel seeks to act a hamas from Gaza, it expands the possibilities of militias, led by the enemies of the Palestinian group, helping and providing them with military support in an attempt to present them as an alternative to Hamas’s rule in the enclave.
It seems that the policy dates at the end of last year, when Israel aimed at local police forces in Gaza, justifying such attacks, saying that any state organization in gas is associated with Hamas; The result was chaos in parts of the strip.
In the followed vacuum of security, the 32-year-old Palestinian tribes named Yaser Abu Shabab appeared with about 100 of his clan to control assistance routes near the intersection of Kerem-shawl, a critically important assistance conductor on the Gaza-Israel border.
Help organizations are accused of groups such as Abu Shabab of analysis of convoys that have ties with extremist groups and Wooding hunger in gasField
In May, Jonathan Willow, the then Director of the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination in the occupied territories, said at news briefings that “criminal gangs under the observation of Israeli forces were” allowed in the immediate vicinity of crossing the border of the cream -shawl. “
A month later, the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu recognized his government, following the security councils, “activated” the clans in Gaza to work against Hamas.
“What is bad about that?” He said in the video -shame. “This is only good, and it only saves the life of the soldiers of Israel’s defense forces.”
Since then, Abu Shabab has introduced his group into the so -called “popular forces”. Soon after the address of Netanyahu, Abu Shabab published a statement about his own denial, having received some kind of weapon from Israel. But other posts advertising security operations and assistance to the group show that he works in areas under the full control of the Israeli military, and in the messages of the Israeli media they say that he received Kalashnikov rifles from the military.
According to the activists, the Abu Shabab group may have been the first to be known in Gaza, but other militias appeared since then acting in various parts of the strip in combination with the Israeli military.
One of the most noticeable examples is the 50-year-old Hussam Al-Astal, a former officer in the Security Service of the Palestinian administration, who was accused of colleagues of the Palestinian administration and Hamas of cooperation with Israel in the 1990s and the murder of a senior official officer in Khamas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
His group, who calls himself “the power of the strike against terror,” secured its control over Kizan al-Sajar, the village south of Rafach, which Astal describes as a shelter for those who are against Hamas.
“Today in my area we have no war,” Astal said in a telephone interview on Friday, adding that others should come and that anyone entering this area was tested in touch with Hamas.
“If you come here, you will see how children play. We have water, electricity, safety. ”
Smoke rises from buildings after heavy Israeli attacks, as the Palestinians continue to flee from the northern Gaza towards the south.
(Khams alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Astal made his comments on the same day end the war What began when Hamas forces invaded Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas agreed to free the hostages and largely abandon his leading role in the gas, which he controlled since 2007.
In a video published in September, al-Astal promises to pay $ 50 to everyone who kills the Hamas fighter.
“Each member of Hamas, whom I personally add to a bunch of garbage. Hamas's rule ends, ”he says.
On Friday, the Al-Astala group was involved in one of the most bloody cases of intra-Palistine battles in the enclave, when the Hamas unit attacked the district in Khan Unis to arrest the members of the outstanding clan accused of cooperation with Israel.
In the subsequent shootout, five clans were killed, local sources report. Al-Astal said that his forces helped in the fight against Hamas “using our special methods.” He did not talk in detail about what these methods were, but the Israeli military launched personnel later on Friday, showing that they are aimed at Hamas militants, who, according to him, attack the neighborhood in the Khan Unis; He later said that he killed 20 militants.
The reports on social networks say that 11 members of Hamas were killed, and their bodies were tightened along the streets of Khan Unis. One video shot by local activists and posted in the message exchange application shows that the camera was dragged over the bloodied corpses built side by side on the ground.
Palestinians continue to flee to the southern regions with their things after Israeli air strikes and ground attacks on Gas on October 3.
(SaEED MMT Jaras/Anadolu via Getty images)
This is not the first time that Israel tried to create alternative management structures in Palestinian communities. In the period from 1978 to 1984, he formed the League of the village, which was aimed at dismantling the organization of the liberation of Palestine, relying on outstanding Palestinians, giving them incentives in exchange for their cooperation as a more flexible authority. The initiative failed.
Around the same time, Israel is authorized by Palestinian Islamic groups, including Hamas, hoping that they will be devoted to a counterweight for OOP and left -wing, secular Palestinian groups that were noticeable at that time.
To be considered as cooperation with Israel remains a black investigation in Palestinian society. Families both Abu Shababa and Al-Astal issued statements abandoned them.
Al-Astal refused when he was described as a traitor, saying that family members, including his sister, were killed by Israeli bombs. But he does not hide what he called coordination with Israeli military, from which he received water, food and military equipment.
“Hamas says I am a traitor because I will coordinate with Israel,” he said.
“What do you think I am coordinated? How to evacuate someone, who is sick; How to provide food, water and services. ”
Not all clans were susceptible to the overtures of Israel.
Last month, said Nizar Dugmush, the head of an outstanding tribe in the city of Gaza, a militia contacted him, who claimed that he was an intermediary from the Israeli military.
“He said that the Israelis wanted us to take responsibility for the humanitarian zone in the city of Gaza, that we should gain as many members of our family as possible, and they will provide material and technical support, such as weapons, food and shelter,” said Dugggmush.
But Dughmush refused their proposal, saying that his family was civilians, and that although they were not connected with Hamas, they are not interested in being “instruments of occupation”.
Two days later, said Duggmush, Israeli military aircraft began to knock on the vicinity of the tribe, killing more than 100 members of his clan. Dughmush claims that the Israeli forces entered the surroundings after 48 hours and systematically destroyed each house.
“All this is vengeful against us, because we refused to cooperate,” he said. Two other clans, Dayri and Bakr, approached similarly and were attacked by their regions after they rejected Israel's proposal.
“I am now talking to you as a displaced face, along with what is left of my clan, we all spread in different parts of the gase,” said Duggmush.
Al-Astal, who considers himself a long-standing enemy of Hamas, does not regret in his choice, which he considers important in Gaza after Ham.
“There is no place for Hamas,” he said.
“We are a new administration, and we are the future.”
