A covert Israeli operation to arm a rival Palestinian militia in Gaza was orchestrated in recent months by the Shin Bet, with direct authorization from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ynet reported Thursday. The goal was to challenge Hamas in southern Gaza by strengthening a Bedouin-affiliated group based in Rafah that has long opposed the Islamist organization.
According to the report, dozens to hundreds of handguns and AK-47 rifles were transferred from Israel to the group in Rafah. Despite the intent to weaken Hamas, security officials admitted there were no guarantees the armed men wouldn’t later target IDF troops—particularly along the Philadelphi Corridor or on humanitarian aid routes secured by Israeli forces.
Yasser Abu-Shabab's militia in Gaza
“There was never a plan or intention for them to govern Rafah after Hamas. They don't have the ability—or even necessarily the desire—to do so,” security officials told Ynet. The group is reportedly not affiliated with ISIS in Sinai but maintains close economic ties with them.
“Their primary focus is smuggling, prostitution and extortion—not the Palestinian national cause,” one official added. “Still, they're part of the Arab nation—Bedouins and Gaza residents—so there wasn’t consensus about the plan, especially due to the risk they’d use these weapons against IDF troops.”
Security officials reportedly debated this approach multiple times during the war, including discussions about how to handle large caches of weapons seized in Gaza and in Israel after October 7. One proposal was to reintroduce these weapons into Gaza, arming anti-Hamas factions. Officials confirmed that this is indeed what happened.
Israel is also investigating whether the group’s close family ties to Bedouin clans in the southern part of the country enabled drone-based arms smuggling from Israel into Gaza in recent months. Some of the smuggling attempts were intercepted but others weren’t.
Security officials said the initiative originated with the Shin Bet, which has long-standing ties with the Rafah-based group. The IDF reportedly supported the plan as part of a broader strategy to weaken Hamas from multiple angles. “They’ve already harmed and challenged Hamas—and continue to do so,” the officials noted.
This isn't the first time Israel has armed hostile elements with Netanyahu’s approval. According to past reports, Israel supplied thousands of rifles to armed groups in the Syrian Golan during the civil war.
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Some of those fighters—particularly those linked to ISIS near the Jordanian border—refuse to return the weapons. Israel has also long been reported to supply arms and military know-how to Kurdish forces, a claim it hasn’t denied.
Following the publication of the report, Netanyahu did not deny the operation. “It was advised by security officials. What’s wrong with that? It saves the lives of IDF soldiers,” he said. He criticized Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who exposed the operation, saying his leak “only helped Hamas. He doesn’t care. It’s very serious.”
At the center of the operation is Yasser Abu-Shabab, a 32-year-old Bedouin resident of Rafah who’s presented on social media as the leader of a local militia. He heads a group called The Popular Forces, which he claims is meant to protect civilians and distribute humanitarian aid.
However, Palestinian and international reports say the group operates in coordination with Israel—especially in Israeli-controlled zones east of Rafah near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Abu-Shabab rose to infamy after being accused of looting UN trucks last year and reselling humanitarian supplies meant for Gazans—claims he denies. In a media interview, he claimed he only took food to feed his family but eyewitnesses, including a truck driver, said his men forcibly seized entire shipments.
Hamas later cracked down on the militia, killing Abu-Shabab’s brother. According to an official statement from the group, Hamas forces “eliminated 20 gang members who had stolen aid.” In a post quoted by The New York Times, Abu-Shabab denied receiving weapons from Israel, calling the reports “false claims meant to discredit a homegrown initiative against injustice, theft, and corruption.”
‘They get top-down orders—and arm gangs’
A security official directly involved in the operation told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the unit executing the plan “takes orders from the top and arms gangs for combat inside Gaza.” He said the force was coordinated by Shin Bet officers on the ground and described the process as “complex, deliberate and highly discreet—not just another military aid mission.”
“I don’t know exactly how long this has been going on—it’s at the request of the Military Intelligence Directorate and Shin Bet,” the source said. “I believe there are several operations happening in multiple parts of Gaza due to how sensitive and compartmentalized it all is.” He added that the deliveries included light weapons, extensive equipment and likely also money.
“This wasn’t a ‘fire-and-forget’ operation,” the source continued. “It was calculated, supervised and targeted. These weren’t just supplies dropped into Gaza—they were recovered weapons reintroduced into the Strip.”
When asked whether participants understood the broader implications of the mission, the operative said: “There was a clear understanding in the field—who gets what, how and under what cover. The entire IDF apparatus was aware of it. It didn’t need to be spelled out—it was obvious.”