Anti-Hamas militia in Gaza says leader killed
Hamas militants carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
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Abu Shabab's Popular Forces originally started operating in Gaza's southern Rafah governorate and was accused of aid looting.
Israeli authorities acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab.
"With great pride and honour, the Popular Forces mourn their heroic martyr, Yasser Abu Shabab, the founder of the Popular Forces in the Gaza Strip," the group said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
It said he was shot while "attempting to resolve a dispute between members of the Abu Sanima family" and rejected "misleading reports" that he was killed by Hamas.
In a statement, Hamas said Abu Shabab's killing was "the inevitable outcome for anyone who betrays his people and homeland and chooses to become a tool in the hands of the occupation".
It did not claim to have been involved in his killing.
The Abu Sanima family said in a statement that some of its members had been killed in a clash involving Abu Shabab and his group, "bringing him down and thereby writing a new chapter of Palestinian pride and honour".
Abu Shabab had openly called for the overthrow of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power in 2007.
His group is based in southern Rafah, near Kerem Shalom, Gaza's main Israeli-controlled aid crossing.
In July, Abu Shabab said his group was able to move freely in zones under Israeli military control and communicated their operations beforehand. He later retracted the statement.
Israeli media on Thursday reported that Abu Shabab had succumbed to his wounds after being evacuated from Gaza to a hospital in southern Israel -- but this was denied by the hospital.
"The killing of Yasser Abu Shabab was good news for us," said Abu Sameh al-Ghamri, a displaced Palestinian in al-Zawayda, central Gaza.
"They set up checkpoints, stole aid, and besieged us," he added.
"This is the fate of every traitor and thief who steals people's livelihood."
Another displaced Palestinian, Hassan Musleh, told AFP that while Abu Shabab "didn't pose any threat to me personally... his end was expected and inevitable."
The European Council on Foreign Relations says Abu Shabab was born in 1990 and describes him as leading a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks".
It said he was thought to have been previously imprisoned by Hamas for drug trafficking.
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