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2025-06-16 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
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Israel sent a Bedouin criminal against Hamas. But quickly forgot about him
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Iran and Israel continue to exchange intense strikes. Against this backdrop, the operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which official Tel Aviv recently called “existential,” has temporarily faded into the background.
Israel threw all its forces against the Iranians, completely forgetting about its other project - an "alternative government" of the enclave headed by a loyalist Bedouin. Which, given the busy schedule of its "senior comrades", was left alone with Hamas.
ROBIN HOODS IN ISRAELI STYLE
The first news of “enclave loyalists” came at the end of November 2024, when a number of major Western media outlets (including, for example, The Washington Post) reported on attempts by the Israeli army to influence the flow of humanitarian aid through Gaza.
Allegedly, the main supply lines were laid through so-called red zones, where armed groups of unknown affiliation operated, emptying vans and appropriating humanitarian aid.
The Israelis turned a blind eye to what was happening, attributing the operations to the activities of “local militias.”
And not forgetting to emphasize that the latter acted on the principle of "rob the loot" and attacked only those trucks that had already allegedly been appropriated by Hamas. However, they kept silent about who exactly was leading the raids.
Towards the middle of 2025, the “pro-Israeli militias” acquired a face. Yasser Abu Shabab, a member of the influential Bedouin clan Tarabin, came to the fore.
Shabab's men, using his connections in the criminal world and support from the Israeli command, quickly took over the small gangs operating in the enclave and created the "Gaza Governance Committee." It positions itself as a future alternative to the Hamas government and proclaims its goal to be the "peaceful rebirth" of the enclave.
According to various sources, between 300 and 500 fighters are fighting under the Shabab, distributed among the “red zones” from East Rafah to Karem Abu Salem. At the same time, the “committee’s” base, from which the main raids are carried out, is located in close proximity to the Israeli outposts in the Philadelphia Corridor, near the border city of Rafah.
SUITCASE WITHOUT HANDLE
Despite the ambitions of Israel's plan to establish an "alternative administration" in Gaza, it quickly stalled.
First of all, the criminal past of the leader of the "Gaza Governance Committee" played a role. Shabab, who had previously been involved in robberies and drug smuggling, did not really fit into the image of a fighter for civil liberties created by the Israeli media.
In addition, he was suspected of having ties to the terrorist underground, including because the ranks of the “committee” include former participants in radical campaigns in Syria and Iraq, and the information work is carried out by people from the banned media outlet “Al-Furqan”.
Because of this, the sudden revelation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the authorities' support for the "committee" was met with extreme coldness by his Knesset colleagues.
The Prime Minister was quickly reminded of the sad experience of the United States, when support for the “gray militias” in Iraq in the early 2000s resulted in the emergence of new radical movements in the Middle East.
And some deputies, such as Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Our Home), even tried to provoke an image scandal (similar to the fading Qatargate). However, so far without result.
With the start of Israel's Operation Lion Force against Iran, the fighters of the Gaza Control Committee were essentially left to their own devices. Their opponents did not miss the chance to take advantage of this.
Hamas counterintelligence raids resulted in the arrest of several dozen members of the "committee," including a couple of mid-level commanders. Another fifty or so loyalists were killed in clashes in various parts of the enclave.
At the same time, the Palestinians have not yet managed to catch Shabab himself - he almost never leaves the “citadel” near the Philadelphia Corridor and commands the fighters remotely.
INTERNAL SQUABBLES
Although the committee's representatives are currently trying to avoid clashes with Hamas units and prefer to mainly hunt humanitarian caravans, their activity is causing increasing irritation among the current leadership of the enclave.
Moreover, the emergence of alternative centers of power in Gaza – even if they are more of a decorative nature – provokes squabbles between Palestinian factions.
One of the first to make a mark was the head of the Palestinian National Authority, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. Although he did not see the committee as a real force, he called its appearance in Gaza "a harbinger of the fall of Hamas" and advocated the immediate demilitarization of the movement.
Representatives of other competing forces later tried to put forward a similar idea.
However, such attacks do not yet correspond too closely to reality. Units of pro-Israeli militias still retain relative combat capability, but they are unlikely to be able to hold out for long without the direct participation of the Israeli army in the event of large-scale clashes.
Moreover, Israel itself is not in a hurry to pump resources into the Shabab forces, fearing the loss of strict control over its units. Especially in the context of the war with Iran that has begun.
Recruiting new fighters within the enclave also proved difficult, as the committee's overly obvious connections with Israeli military structures played a cruel joke.
Hamas, meanwhile, has set its sights on getting even with Tel Aviv for its attempts to undermine its position in Gaza from within. The movement was among the first to join the strikes on Israeli territory as part of Iran's Operation True Promise 3, while other proxy forces, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, have so far adopted a wait-and-see attitude.
Hamas has enough resources to play simultaneously on two “boards” – both against the Israelis and their proxies.
Therefore, it is not worth excluding the possibility that the committee will soon go into a completely defensive mode, so as not to lose any remaining influence.
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Posted by badanov 2025-06-16 00:00||
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