Israel pits Gaza militias against Hamas

Netanyahu's government is empowering Palestinian clan groups that are accused of looting aid convoys

- BY NABIH BULOS

BELONGINGS piled high, a man in Gaza City is bound for the southern region.

(SAEED M.M.T. JARAS Anadolu)

As Israel seeks to excise Hamas from Gaza, it’s empowering militias led by the Palestinian group’s enemies, assisting and providing them with military support in an attempt to present them as an alternative to Hamas’ rule in the enclave.

The policy appears to date back to late last year, when Israel targeted local police forces in Gaza, justifying such attacks by saying that any government entity in Gaza is affiliated with Hamas; the result was chaos in parts of the Strip.

In the ensuing security vacuum, a 32-year-old Palestinian tribesman named Yaser Abu Shabab emerged with some 100 of his clansmen to control aid routes near the Kerem Shalom crossing, a critically important aid conduit at the Gaza-Israel boundary.

Aid organizations accuse groups like Abu Shabab’s of looting aid convoys, having ties to extremist groups and exacerbating famine in Gaza.

PALESTINIANS vie for food at a community kitchen in the southern Gaza Strip.

(JEHAD ALSHRAFI Associated Press)

In May, Jonathan Whitall, then director of the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories, said in a news briefing that “criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces,” have been “allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom border crossing.”

A month later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged his government, following the advice of security officials, had “activated” clans in Gaza to work against Hamas.

“What's bad about it?” he said in a video statement. “It’s only good and it only saves the lives of Israel Defense Force soldiers.”