Rafah, Gaza Strip – December 5, 2025 – The killing of Yasser Abu Shabab, commander of one of Gaza’s most visible anti-Hamas militias, has delivered a sharp setback to Israel’s attempt to cultivate local armed proxies in the territory. The 32-year-old Bedouin tribal leader from the Tarabin clan was shot and fatally wounded on Thursday, December 4, while trying to mediate a family dispute in eastern Rafah, according to his own organization, the Popular Forces.
His group insisted the incident was an internal clan quarrel and angrily rejected any suggestion that Hamas was responsible, calling the Islamist movement “too weak” to assassinate their leader. Israeli sources confirmed attempts were made to evacuate Abu Shabab across the border for emergency treatment in southern Israel before he succumbed to his injuries.
Hamas did not claim direct responsibility but issued a triumphant statement declaring that Abu Shabab had met “the inevitable fate of anyone who betrays their people,” adding that Israel could not protect its collaborators forever. Across Gaza, images quickly spread on social media showing his portrait crossed out with a red “X,” while videos captured residents in Rafah distributing sweets and firing celebratory gunfire into the air.
Abu Shabab had emerged over the past year as the most prominent face of several loosely organized Palestinian factions that Israel has armed, funded, and sheltered inside the enclave. Operating exclusively from Israeli-controlled areas of Rafah, his Popular Forces conducted raids into Hamas-held neighborhoods, detained suspected militants, provided intelligence to the IDF, and in recent months helped regulate humanitarian aid flows through the Kerem Shabab crossing. Israeli officials viewed the group as a potential building block for weakening Hamas rule and creating small pockets of territory governed by alternatives to the Islamist organization.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly praised the strategy in June 2025, describing the emergence of anti-Hamas clans as “a good thing” that saved Israeli soldiers’ lives. The program, however, was reportedly launched without formal approval from Israel’s security cabinet, drawing criticism even within government circles.
Abu Shabab’s rapid rise began after he escaped a Hamas prison during the early months of the war. Previously jailed on drug-trafficking charges, he swiftly aligned himself with Israeli forces and rebranded his fighters—first known as the “Anti-Terror Service,” later as the Popular Forces. By mid-2025 the group claimed several hundred members equipped with rifles, drones, and vehicles supplied by Israel. In July, Abu Shabab penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal announcing that his men had established a “new administration” in eastern Rafah and were ready to secure future reconstruction projects.
Yet the militia faced widespread accusations of criminality. UN agencies and humanitarian organizations repeatedly charged its members with looting aid convoys, exacerbating Gaza’s hunger crisis. Some fighters were alleged to have past ties to the Islamic State, further damaging the group’s reputation among Palestinians.
Following the October 2025 ceasefire, the Popular Forces were expected to play a key role in the next phase of the U.S.-brokered plan: securing construction sites and maintaining order in Israeli-occupied buffer zones while international donors begin rebuilding. Abu Shabab’s death throws that timeline into doubt and highlights the fragility of relying on clan-based armed groups in a society where collaboration with Israel remains a deadly taboo.
Analysts warn that his elimination could trigger revenge cycles among Rafah’s powerful Bedouin tribes, several of which have their own rival militias backed by Israel. Gunbattles in the area have already wounded Israeli troops in recent days, and the Tarabin tribe itself expelled Abu Shabab months ago, publicly disowning him as a traitor.
As Gaza struggles to emerge from more than two years of devastation, the killing underscores the absence of any agreed post-war governance framework. With Hamas still in control of most civilian institutions and armed factions splintering along tribal lines, the vision of stable, non-Islamist local authorities capable of partnering with Israel appears farther away than ever.
In the streets of Rafah, where funerals and fireworks unfolded side by side, residents offered starkly different verdicts on Yasser Abu Shabab’s brief, turbulent career. To some he was a criminal collaborator who stole aid and sold out his people; to a small minority he represented a desperate attempt at an alternative to endless Hamas rule. Whatever the truth, his violent end serves as a grim reminder of the treacherous ground on which any future political order in Gaza will have to be built.
