It has emerged today that Israel has secretly been arming gangs in Gaza that are known to steal aid.

[Whatsinanamehey]

Why? Why has Israel underhandedly been arming these gangs that are known to steal humanitarian aid? It has just been disclosed today but how long has it been going on for

I posted previously how Palestinians have been complaining that armed gangs are stealing aid whilst the IDF are nearby and have done nothing but this has just been dismissed as Hamas propaganda. It turns out it isn't after all like so many other incidences.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/ex-defense-chief-liberman-says-netanyahu-arming-gazan-gang-pms-office-does-not-deny/

Liberman, who heads the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, appears to be referring to the Abu Shabab clan, an armed gang opposed to Hamas which has been documented in recent days operating in an area near the Kerem Shalom crossing under Israeli military control.
“The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister,” Liberman tells the Kan public broadcaster. “To my knowledge this did not go through approval by the cabinet.”

Armed members of the Abu Shabab clan in uniform in the Rafah area, May 2025.
According to Tel Aviv University researcher Michael Milshtein, Abu Shabab is known in Gaza as drug dealers and thieves, and was previously involved in looting aid trucks.

For Times of Israel to report on a story like this, you know the tide is turning against Netanyahu.

To answer your questions, I believe two reasons:

To show the world that aid is getting through but preventing that aid from getting to the Palestinians so he can carry on with his objective of breaking down the Palestinians.

Or to somehow blame it on Hamas.

The article claims that it’s part of the attempt to bring down Hamas, but hasn’t recent events shown that in itself is dangerous as that’s exactly how ISIS started - local revolutionary groups with extremist thinking funded by the US as part of its attempt to topple Assad. Appreciate I am simplifying the matter but I would have thought he would want to avoid extremists with weapons in Gaza…unless there is an ulterior motive.

How do we know if these extremists that he is arming are not secretly colluding with Hamas? And how convenient that Israel have been blaming any looting on Hamas so far and have failed to disclose that it's gangs they are arming themselves!

@ButterBites

Edited to add that he hasn't released a statement but this is more of an official confirmation

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/sources-confirm-israel-arming-gazan-gang-to-bolster-opposition-to-hamas/

No wonder Netanyahu wanted more control of aid

I just can’t get my head around this story!

It’s quite an accusation isn’t it?! And it’s not being denied. I wonder if it’ll be picked up any other paper.

Abu Shabab claims to be securing humanitarian aid convoys entering Gaza, while some have accused his gang of looting them.
The arming of Abu Shabab was carried out without the approval of Israel’s security cabinet. It was led by Israeli security bodies, and was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to defense sources.

It hasn't been picked up by MSM here yet but I wonder how they will react.

Isn’t he endangering the IDF by doing this without (I assume) telling them? He is a monster.

Fucking hell.

I don't understand the long game here, surely if groups allied with IS take over the region that's even worse news for Israel? Make it make sense!

Not only IDF but endangering normal Palestinians too. Don't they have enough to fucking deal with and now they have undercover armed gang members to deal with too.

It doesn't make sense at all! I wonder if the US know about this. Are they all in it together? If it wasn't posted on the times of Israel this thread would be flooded with posters accusing me of anti Israel propaganda.

Sorry, I thought it went without saying that the Palestinians are being destroyed by literally everything that is happening.

The "hell on earth" scenario is a very deliberate strategy. How else can you describe the targeting of water systems and cutting off food supply for the entire population?

Having said that, I'm surprised to hear that Israel would be arming criminals - that's going to bite them on the arse in the future. After all, the Taliban started the same way, as did Isis.

Even if the report is wrong, the outcome would almost certainly be the same. You've got a complete breakdown in law and order, along with weapons caches left over from the remnants of Hammas - who were not a ragtag militia, but an armed and well-funded repressive Government at the start of this war.

I think Netanyahu, emboldened by the right-wing and US will do exactly what he says he will do and absorb Gaza into Israel. He's making it impossible for the Palestinians to live there by shepherding them into ever-smaller areas with no independent resources such as farming or fishing. The end game is "voluntary evacuation". I wish Hammas would agree to a peace pause, so food and independent observers are allowed in.

Agree
of note
Theres nothing on Al Jazeera news site and they usually update very regularly

I’m sure there will be justification. Helping to destroy Hamas or something akin to that.

Just wondering now if the Freedom Flotilla that’s trying to deliver aid and is on its way to the coast will be attacked by Abu Shabab.

Then all we’ll hear is ‘it was Hamas’

It's not a website I normally post from but whilst searching to see if it was posted elsewhere I found this on the new Arab which makes sense now.

This week, the Israeli military admitted internally that out of 110 looting incidents they documented, none were carried out by Hamas. Instead, the looting was done by “armed gangs, organised clans” and, to a lesser extent, starved civilians.
Those very gangs and clans are backed by Israel; they enjoy full Israeli army protection and operate in areas Israel deems “extermination zones”, where any Palestinian trying to enter would be killed or kidnapped on the spot"

Isn’t this akin though to the IDF dressing up as hospital staff to execute a patient and his visitors.
Disguising yourself is against the Geneva convention and a War Crime.

The gangs had vanished during the two-month ceasefire but conveniently re-emerged as soon as Israel was pressured into allowing a limited trickle of aid to enter. The timing is no coincidence; Israeli policy has deliberately weaponised anarchy to preserve the conditions for starvation.
This pushed even the UAE to strongly condemn Israel after the army forced an Emirati aid convoy to drive through a “red zone” where Israel-backed gangs looted 23 out of 24 trucks.
So why does Israel continue to cling to a demonstrably false narrative while openly engineering a looting crisis through its proxies? Because the myth of “Hamas looting” serves a critical strategic purpose: to whitewash and legitimise a new plan that institutionalises starvation for blackmail, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and mass internment through a shell Israeli organisation.
This is coupled with another alarming tactic of recruiting warlords, drug dealers, and criminals to create a puppet “anti-terror” force.

This tactic is really going to come back to bite Netanyahu in the ass. To defeat Hamas he emboldened and armed Isis type groups in Gaza.

Previously he emboldened and sent suitcases full of cash to Hamas to keep the rivalry going between them and the PA and how did that work out for him?

He's hoping to start a civil war amongst armed Palestinians in the strip and arming and encouraging a clan who doesn't appear to be Hamas suits his ends. Just goes to show what a terrible bad faith actor he is and his so called aid proghram was nothing of the sorts. He's happy to see everybody starve, Gaza in ruins and it's inhabitanta dead or fighting amongst themselves for scraps whilst appearing in court for corruption. Can't say he didn't warn us. He is a genocidal maniac.

NDTV world and Middle East news have picked up on the story
Guessing the BBC are still verifying after the Trump bashing they got recently.

He's hoping to start a civil war amongst armed Palestinians in the strip and arming and encouraging a clan who doesn't appear to be Hamas suits his ends.

@sualipa hit the nail on the head.

He can also conveniently blame Hamas for any looting these armed gangs carry out so he can use it as an excuse to continue the new inhumane aid model. What a sneaky weasel.