June 10, 2025
Israel is arming gangs in Gaza to aid in its genocide starvation strategy
As part of its genocidal strategy of weaponizing aid, Israel has been arming, funding, and providing cover to alleged ISIS-linked, criminal gangs in southern Gaza.
These gangs, previously suppressed by the Palestinian resistance, include drug traffickers, murderers, and thieves among their ranks. These gangs play a primary role in facilitating the concentration of Palestinians into Southern Gaza at the behest of the Israeli occupation. The main organization leading these gangs is the “Popular Forces,” led by Yasser Abu-Shabaab. Abu-Shabaab was previously imprisoned in Gaza for drug trafficking and maintains a clandestine criminal network from Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai, where Islamic State groups control the smuggling routes.
As early as October 2024, primarily operating out of Rafah, the Popular Forces set up staging areas in proximity to Israeli bases and aid distribution sites. This allowed the Popular Forces immediate access to the distribution sites, where they would loot aid to resell to Palestinians for extortionate prices on the black market. Its fighters have now announced they have been “protecting” shipments of aid to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites. In conjunction with Israel and GHF, the Popular Forces have established a camp in eastern Rafah, the very area the Zionist occupation seeks to concentrate Palestinians, utilizing looted aid as bait to lure starving Palestinians.
The Popular Forces have effectively become subcontractors of Israeli genocide, reportedly taking on reconnaissance and information gathering missions for the Zionist occupation. More recently, Popular Forces fighters have been targeted by Palestinian resistance for their role in the genocide. While the Popular Forces have been framed as an “alternative” or an “opposition” to Palestinian resistance, in reality, they are simply extensions of the IDF, allowing Israel to reduce risks for its own occupation soldiers.
While the Zionist occupation continues to expand its military assault with little success, the main strategy employed by Israel to advance its objective of ethnic cleansing is starvation, with the goal of concentrating Palestinians into the South. Israel seeks to leverage criminal collaborators to advance this mission by preying on desperate, starving people, who would never accept aid from the Zionist occupation itself. Ultimately, this latest effort reflects the failures of the Zionist occupation to establish complete control over Gaza.