A Palestinian anti-Hamas militia leader has been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli army radio.
Yasser Abu Shabab, the Popular Forces commander, along with a large number of members from his group, and senior commander Ghassan al Duhine, reportedly fell into a well-planned ambush set by the resistance factions.
The Reuters news agency reported that Abu Shabab, the most prominent anti-Hamas clan leader in Gaza, had died of his wounds in a hospital in southern Israel.
Popular Forces, a former looting gang, hopes to wrest control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas – with Israel’s backing.
Hassan Abu Shabab, a relative and childhood friend of the group’s leader, said in October that the recruitment of new militias had swelled its forces across Gaza to around 3,000.
Sky News previously revealed that Abu Shabab’s militia was smuggling vehicles into Gaza with the help of the Israeli military and an Arab-Israeli car dealer.
The headquarters of the Popular Forces are located in a small neighbourhood.
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The base’s location is strategically important – it sits along the route by which aid trucks must travel when entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, a route that aid officials have named “Looters’ Alley”.
An internal UN report, dated November 2024, identified Yasser Abu Shabab and his gang as “the most influential stakeholders behind the systematic and massive looting of convoys”.
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