Israel Armed Palestinian Militia to Fight Hamas, Officials Say

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged only that Israel had been working with “clans.” But the opposition leader warned that the “weapons going into Gaza will eventually be pointed at Israeli soldiers and civilians.”

Israel has been arming a Palestinian militia in Gaza as part of a broader effort to fight Hamas in the enclave, according to officials. After a daylong controversy over the allegations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel acknowledged on Thursday that the country had been working with “clans in Gaza.”

Two Israeli officials and another person familiar with the matter said the Israeli authorities had provided support, including weapons, to Yasser Abu Shabab, a well-known gunman who leads the militia in southern Gaza. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Mr. Abu Shabab is believed to command a relatively small armed group in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. He became notorious in the territory last year amid accusations — which he disputed — that he had looted and resold truckloads of humanitarian aid intended for hungry Gazans.

One of the people described Israel’s move as more symbolic — to bolster the impression that Hamas was losing its grip over Gaza’s Palestinian residents.

It was not clear what effect the move to arm a Palestinian militia would have on the security situation in Gaza. But Israel’s decision offered a window into the country’s struggles to find an alternative to Hamas’s rule in the territory after more than a year and a half of war — and its willingness to experiment with potentially risky strategies to do so.

Mr. Netanyahu said Israel had “activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas,” calling it “a good thing” that saved the lives of Israeli soldiers. “What’s wrong with that?” he asked in a video posted on social media, saying he decided to approve the move after being advised by security officials. But he avoided any mention of sending weapons.

Mr. Abu Shabab rejected “in whole and in detail” the assertion that his group had received arms from Israel in a statement on social media late on Thursday. He said “invalid claims” had been published to discredit an effort that had formed organically and “stood in the face of injustice, looting and corruption.”

Israel has fought for more than a year and a half to topple Hamas after it launched the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that ignited the war. But the Israelis have struggled to find a satisfying answer to what could replace the Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.

Mr. Netanyahu, along with other senior members of his government, has ruled out allowing the internationally backed Palestinian Authority to take charge in Gaza. At one point, Israel tried reaching out to prominent Gazan families to help run civilian affairs, Mr. Netanyahu said in a televised interview last year, but the effort ended in failure after Hamas “eliminated them,” he added.

The Israeli policy of supporting Mr. Abu Shabab with arms appeared to surpass the previous efforts to secure partners in Gaza. But it was still unclear how much control the Gaza militia leader had on the ground.

Israeli lawmakers said in March that they had been told that Hamas’s forces still numbered more than 25,000.

Mr. Abu Shabab’s name became well-known during the Gaza war after he was accused of looting United Nations aid trucks en masse last year alongside his gunmen. One U.N. official struggling to get relief shipments through to needy Gazans described him as “the self-styled power broker of east Rafah.”

In an interview at the time, Mr. Abu Shabab denied large-scale profiteering, saying he was taking the goods only to feed himself and his family. But witnesses provided a different account, including one trucker who said he had been seized by Mr. Abu Shabab’s men and forced to unload tons of aid.

Hamas subsequently cracked down on Mr. Abu Shabab’s group, killing his brother, although he himself evaded capture. Official Hamas news media reported at the time that its forces had killed 20 members of “gangs of thieves who were stealing aid.”

In recent weeks, Mr. Abu Shabab has been on a social media campaign to burnish his image. This week, he called on displaced Palestinians to return to an area of eastern Rafah that he suggested was under his control. In a video published on Facebook, he said, alongside footage of empty tents, that he would provide them with food and shelter.

Yossi Amrosi, a former Israeli intelligence officer who specialized in Gaza, said Mr. Abu Shabab’s group and others like it were not supporters of Israel, but that was not the most important factor for now. He estimated the group’s strength at a couple hundred fighters.

“At this moment, we have a common enemy: Hamas,” he said.

But he warned that if Israel was indeed provisioning Mr. Abu Shabab’s forces, “that would require close oversight to ensure that it doesn’t backfire.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s announcement came after Avigdor Liberman, an opposition member of Israel’s Parliament and a former defense minister, accused the prime minister in a radio interview of authorizing weapons transfers to a criminal gang in Gaza.

The Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on social media on Thursday that Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to send arms to the militia would ultimately backfire.

“It’s all being done on the fly, without strategic planning; it will all lead to disaster,” Mr. Lapid said. “The weapons going into Gaza will eventually be pointed at Israeli soldiers and civilians.”

For some Israelis, the move to arm some Gazans recalled Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to approve hundreds of millions in Qatari funding for Gaza. Qatar had sent the money — with Israeli approval — for poor families, infrastructure projects and the salaries of public sector employees. Israeli officials later said they regretted the decision since it enabled Hamas to divert some of the money toward military operations.

The new internal dispute erupted as Israel faces international condemnation for its conduct of the war and over a contentious effort to distribute aid in the enclave, with sites overseen by American contractors. The effort followed an 80-day Israeli blockade of humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.

Israel says the effort aims to keep Hamas from seizing control of the aid supply, which the group denies it does. Humanitarian organizations say the Israeli-backed effort cannot meet the needs of the approximately two million Palestinians in Gaza.

The initiative has also had a chaotic rollout, with dozens of Palestinians shot dead and wounded as they gathered to reach aid sites, according to Gaza health officials.

Adam Rasgon and Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.

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• Gaza Aid Group’s New Leader: Johnnie Moore, a former Trump campaign adviser, was appointed to the board of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation after the aid rollout was hit by chaos and the deadly shootings of Palestinians.