Netanyahu Confirms Israel Transferred Arms to Gaza Clan
Israel has been arming a Gaza-based armed group opposed to Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Thursday. The move, reportedly intended to weaken Hamas’s grip on the Gaza Strip, was initially revealed Thursday by opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman, who accused Netanyahu of unilaterally authorizing the weapons transfer to the Abu Shabab clan.
Defense officials later confirmed the arrangement to Israeli and international press, saying the group received Kalashnikov rifles, including some captured from Hamas. The gang, led by Yasser Abu Shabab and operating in Rafah near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, has presented itself as securing humanitarian convoys in the area under Israeli control. Critics, including other Palestinians, accuse them of looting the aid.
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Lieberman denounced the decision to transfer arms, saying, “The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister.” He added that the decision bypassed the security cabinet and questioned whether the military’s chief of staff had been involved.
Netanyahu defended the strategy in a video posted online, saying, “We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas. What’s wrong with that? It’s only good. It saves lives of IDF soldiers.”
The Abu Shabab militia, estimated by Hamas sources to number around 300, has reportedly become a target for Hamas’s armed wing, which has allegedly begun assassinating its members. The group is also suspected to include individuals affiliated with Salafi extremists.
Critics say the tactic follows a pattern in Netanyahu’s approach to Gaza, where Israel has previously tolerated or indirectly supported rival factions to undermine the Palestinian Authority.
