TEL AVIV — The most prominent anti-Hamas clan leader in Gaza, Yasser Abu Shabab, was killed Thursday in an “internal” dispute with other militia members, according to a local ally of his and two Israeli individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.
The exact circumstances of his killing remained unclear: Abu Shabab and his group of armed men, who got their start in 2024 looting aid convoys, had been holed up in eastern Rafah in southern Gaza, an area controlled by the Israeli military.
His death could threaten Israel’s months-long experiment in arming local clans and gangs to challenge Hamas and establish enclaves within Gaza that are free from the Islamist group’s influence. Abu Shabab, 32, was central to the project and had called on Hamas to relinquish power while pledging to protect Palestinian civilians who relocated to his fiefdom.
Hamas on Thursday did not publicly claim responsibility for killing Abu Shabab, who broke out of prison in Gaza during the first months of the war. But as rumors of his death began to swirl in the late afternoon local time, an elite unit of Hamas’s military wing circulated an image with an “X” over Abu Shabab’s photo. The text read: “As we told you: Israel won’t protect you.”
According to Hussam al-Astal, the leader of a militia allied with Abu Shabab, he was killed over a “personal matter,” related to either money or issues with his family. Abu Shabab belonged to the Bedouin Tarabin tribe that extends from Gaza into Israel’s Negev desert and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Some members of the tribe publicly disavowed Abu Shabab.
“A lot is still unclear around this case, but what is for sure is that Hamas will benefit from it,” said Oded Ailam, former head of the counterterrorism division in Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, and a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
He said the killing bookmarked the end of an Israeli “strategy that was never a strategy.” In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefly acknowledged his government’s support for Gaza-based clans as a counterweight to Hamas. Prominent members of Israel’s security establishment had long criticized the Israeli leader for refusing to commit to a postwar strategy in Gaza.
“No one in Israel ever believed that Abu Shabab would replace Hamas,” Ailam said. “Abu Shabab wasn’t big enough, he didn’t have enough popularity, and, more than any specifics pertaining to Abu Shabab, it was never going to be a clan or an international force, or any other composition that would disarm Hamas, because of course Hamas will never disarm voluntarily.”
Ari Flanzraich in Jaffa, Israel, Miriam Berger and Claire Parker in Cairo, and Hazem Balousha in Ontario contributed to this report.
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