From drug lords to death squads: Israel’s Gaza war continues through collaborator gangs

Israel’s latest tactic relies on arming criminal gangs and former security agents to carry out assassinations and terrorize civilians, continuing its war on Gaza by other means

Despite Israeli forces having largely ceased fire, they are now hatching a plot using collaborator proxies across Gaza as part of a continuation of the genocide. This includes using these criminal gangs to execute civilians, murder security force members, and even assassinate journalists.

Under the current ceasefire agreement, ‘phase one’ has triggered an Israeli withdrawal from many populated areas of the Gaza Strip, yet the military still remains in between 56-58% of the besieged enclave’s territory. On the first day of the ceasefire’s implementation, Israeli forces murdered nearly 40 civilians, mostly through gunfire.

While Israeli army fire began to subside, the three primary militia forces that Israel has backed against Hamas have escalated their attacks on both civilians and Hamas-aligned security forces. These militant groups are led by drug-traffickers, ex-Palestinian Authority Preventive Security Force members, and Salafist militants. They are also linked to ISIS.

These groups have begun to carry out assassinations in the Gaza Strip over the past week, starting with the murder of Mohammed Imad Aqel, the son of a senior Al-Qassam Brigades Commander. 

On Sunday (12), they even murdered prominent Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi, along with the son of Hamas politburo member Bassem Naim. These Israeli-backed militants had ambushed a group of Gazan security force members, murdering them along with civilians returning to their homes in the north.

According to Gaza’s Dr Mohammed Abu Lahia, in the case of Aljafarawi, the Israeli collaborator gang had kidnapped the beloved journalist, tortured him and then executed him with seven bullets from point-blank range.

Hours later, Hamas’ security forces, reportedly alongside members of the Qassam Brigades, pursued these militants to their hideout in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, eliminating dozens and arresting others. 

According to reports on the ground, the internal security forces seized Israeli-supplied weapons and a hit list containing the names of prominent figures in the north of Gaza.

A Gaza Proxy War

These militia groups are located throughout the Gaza Strip, but each wing of this anti-Hamas coalition of Israeli-backed death squads is responsible for managing different turf.

Operating out of eastern Rafah is the armed gang calling itself the ‘Popular Forces’, led by convicted drug trafficker and ISIS-affiliate Yasser Abu Shabab. This force began receiving overt backing from Israel to carry out coordinated armed robberies of humanitarian aid trucks heading into Gaza, following the Israeli seizure of the Rafah Crossing on May 6, 2024.

The so-called ‘Popular Forces’ is a newer name for the group that had previously operated in the shadows, solely focusing on stealing humanitarian aid. 

Under Israeli supervision, inside territory considered an active ‘kill zone’ for anyone other than the Israelis, Abu Shabab’s men, and coordinated aid truck entries, the militants would demand $4,000 bribes from humanitarian organizations, or they would seize all the aid.

While civilians in Gaza were suffering severe malnutrition and lacked the ability to get their hands on medical supplies, clean water, shelter, and food, Abu Shabab’s men were hoarding the aid and living under 24-hour Israeli military protection in eastern Rafah. They stockpiled the stolen aid and then drip-fed it onto the black market, where civilians were forced to pay exorbitant prices for the bare necessities.

Later in 2024, however, Yasser Abu Shabab began trying to change his ISIS-linked gang’s image, a project that Western mainstream media attempted to aid him in doing. Suddenly, the Israeli and corporate media began presenting Abu Shabab and his gang of criminals as a grassroots anti-Hamas opposition force.

The Western media’s facelift to a band of drug-dealers, Salafist militants and murderers began. Then, during the Gaza ceasefire that began in January of 2025, Israel supplied Abu Shabab’s men with Israeli tactical vests, helmets, badges, weapons and vehicles. After Israel decided to collapse the ceasefire in March, the so-called ‘Popular Forces’ were born.

On July 24, the Wall Street Journal even published an article entitled ‘Gazans Are Finished With Hamas’, which they claim was written by Yasser Abu Shabab. However, this promotional piece for the ISIS-linked aid-looting death squad could not have been written by Abu Shabab, not only because he doesn’t speak English, but because he is reportedly illiterate in Arabic too.

The so-called ‘Popular Forces’ were even collaborating with the American Private Military Contractor (PMC) led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was labelled by Gazans as a “death trap” where over 1,500 civilians were murdered after being lured towards food, after being deprived of any aid for three months. 

There was even a plot for Abu Shabab’s men to be used to rule over a concentration camp in southern Gaza, which Israel constructed and was planning to herd the population of the territory into.

Later in August, another group popped up in Khan Yunis, calling itself the ‘Counterterrorism Strike Force’ (CSF) and led by Hosam al-Astal, a former member of the PA’s Preventive Security Forces – intelligence branch – who has long been linked with the Israeli Shin Bet. 

The CSF has been accused of raiding hospitals, killing civilians, stealing aid, and looting homes, but its primary role has been to launch raids against Palestinian resistance fighters.

Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to admit his backing of these ISIS-linked gangs after Israeli Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman criticized the strategy publicly.

On September 17, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz confirmed that the Israeli support extended beyond simply arming these militants and that they were given orders directly from the Israeli chain of command. The Israeli media outlet even interviewed officers who expressed their disapproval of the use of these militants, as they were out of control and potentially posed a threat to Israeli military objectives.

Both the ‘Popular Forces’ and CSF are directly connected with one another. Granted cash, weapons and control of territory under Israeli supervision in exchange for attacking Hamas on their behalf.

Then came a new Israeli-backed militia with the beginning of Israel’s ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2’, otherwise known as the attempt to occupy Gaza City. This militia is composed primarily of members from the Doghmush clan and is led by Ashraf Mansi, calling itself the ‘People’s Army Northern Forces’. 

They are comprised of Palestinian Authority-affiliated militants and were also responsible for looting aid trucks throughout the genocide.

The territory in which the northern Gaza death squad operated was Jabaliya, Beit Lahia, and areas in Gaza City. During the Israeli military’s re-invasion of northern Gaza, these militants had carried out a number of operations against Palestinian resistance factions.

The Israeli Vision for Gaza

The Israelis are currently allowing these militant groups to operate out of the territory their army is still occupying in Gaza, providing them with drone cover and, as it appears here, hit lists that appear to include prominent journalists.

As a strategy, this means backing these collaborator death squads to do Israel’s dirty work without them having to lift a finger. Tel Aviv and its propagandists can then point to the clashes as a “Palestinian civil war” or “anti-Hamas uprising”, when in reality they are actively using these forces to do their direct bidding.

According to Palestinian journalist Muhammad Shehada, there are signs that civilians in Gaza could be offered to live in the areas that are under the control of the militias and Israeli occupation forces, luring them there through claims that they can rebuild their lives.

This strategy is extremely unlikely to work, however, as all of those used by Israel to run these groups are deeply unpopular. For instance, in northern Gaza, the militia is run by members of the Doghmush clan, which is a family long stereotyped as “troublemakers” locally. 

Despite this reputation, many members of this family explicitly refused to collaborate with Israel and were murdered for it, the clan also lost nearly 100 relatives to Israeli airstrikes during the genocide.

A group of Palestinians from northern Gaza told the Palestine Chronicle that the Dogmush family is infamous. While noting that not all of the family is to blame, one man stated that “I remember that before the Intifada they used to steal cars from 48 and sell them in Gaza”, another remarked that “ask anyone in Gaza and they will tell you they are known for making problems”.

Similarly, Yasser Abu Shabab comes from the Bedouin Tarabin clan. They are widely stereotyped as drug dealers and criminals inside Gaza. It should be noted, however, that the Tarabin family has openly condemned Abu Shabab and stands against his so-called ‘Popular Forces’.

It would be unfair and untrue to adopt the understanding that an entire clan is responsible for the actions of their relatives, yet the importance of mentioning this is to point out that Israel has chosen the most unpopular people to lead their anti-Hamas proxy war.

Not only do the people of Gaza despise these criminal gangs for committing armed robbery, extortion, drug-dealing, aid theft, the murder of civilians, and collaborating with the military that is committing a genocide, but these groups are led by people who have some of the worst reputations imaginable. 

What is likely to happen now is that these death squads will continue carrying out assassinations, robberies, and raids on the orders of the Israeli military, as the Palestinian resistance and internal security forces hunt them down. 

Amidst this, there will be attempts to sow chaos, to destabilize the security situation and also the publishing of propaganda to claim that Hamas is carrying out abuses. Israeli propagandists are already using old videos, fake videos, or mischaracterizing events to claim that Hamas is cracking down on a grassroots uprising. This will have little impact on Palestinians in Gaza, however.

The most pernicious forms of propaganda will come from Palestinians themselves, who claim to be with the people of Gaza, but who are apologists for the Israeli regime and whose job it is to cause division. These propagandists, most of whom live in the United States, will work hard to spread false propaganda in an attempt to sow chaos and promote Israeli narratives.

In other words, the war is not over yet. Instead, the Israelis are trying to ignite a proxy conflict after they militarily failed to defeat some dozen Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza themselves.

-The Palestine Chronicle

Convicted drug trafficker and ISIS-affiliate Yasser Abu Shabab, leader of the so-called Popular Forces – palestinechronicle.com/social media