At least two Israeli outlets reported the killing of Yasser Abu Shabab, a Palestinian militia leader accused of looting aid in Gaza and collaborating with Israeli forces against Hamas.
Abu Shabab, a member of the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, escaped prison in Gaza after October 7 while serving time on criminal charges, including drug trafficking. He later emerged as the head of the Popular Forces, an Israeli-backed anti-Hamas militia accused of seizing aid convoys under the pretext of protecting them.
His rise coincided with the height of the 2024 war, during which the group was repeatedly accused of worsening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis by intercepting relief shipments. After the ceasefire, Abu Shabab led ground operations against remaining Hamas fighters in Rafah, where he was reportedly killed – either in an ambush or amid internal clashes within his faction, depending on differing accounts.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine, has previously stated that “theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces,” later clarifying that he was referring to groups “such as Abu Shabab’s.”
