The leader of a rival Hamas militia that collaborated with Israel has died.

BarcelonaYasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a rival Hamas militia inside Gaza, died Thursday in an Israeli hospital. Abu Shabab, who received financial and military support from Israel, had been hospitalized after being wounded in fighting in Gaza. His death strengthens Hamas's control over the Gaza Strip, from which Israeli troops have withdrawn. The 31-year-old Abu Shabab escaped from prison on October 7, 2013, the day of the Palestinian attacks against Israel. He had been serving a sentence since 2015 for drug trafficking and was accused of having links to the Islamic State. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself had admitted to funding Abu Shabab's militia, a group of about 100 fighters calling themselves the Israel Support Forces, to rival Hamas. The group is active on social media, using sophisticated language and methods that experts believe originate outside of Gaza. Abu Shabab had even published an opinion piece in The Washington Post. He was a member of the Tarabin Bedouin clan, who had in fact publicly denounced him as a collaborator with Israel.

Looting of humanitarian aid

In May 2025, it was reported that Abu Shabab and its members were responsible for ensuring the security of convoys belonging to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Trump-backed food distribution program that resulted in the deaths of over a thousand Gazans. Hamas accused them of collaborating with Israel and claimed that the group operated behind embankments protecting humanitarian entry routes established under the US aid initiative. According to several reports, their forces escorted convoys coming from the Kerem Shalom crossing, armed with AK-47 rifles allegedly supplied by the Israeli army itself, according to various media outlets in the country. Hamas also accused Abu Shabab of participating in the search of buildings before Israeli troops entered. Netanyahu himself admitted that they support armed opposition groups inside Gaza.

Following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from a third of the Gaza territory with the agreement imposed by Donald Trump on October 11, Hamas has regained strength in the territory, intensified clashes with rival militias, and now appears to have eliminated Abu Shabab.

Abu Shabab emerged seemingly out of nowhere in May of last year, after Israel occupied the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the Egyptian border. Analysts like the Palestinian Muhammad Shehada consider it responsible for the looting of humanitarian aid and food trucks entering Gaza under the protection of the Israeli army. According to the UN, during this period, one out of every ten trucks was looted. Israel blames these thefts on Hamas, without evidence, but humanitarian actors and even US intelligence services have denied this.