An outstanding former Minister of Israel has aisan a controversial idea about the methods for Avigdor Lieberman, which has held different positions in the governments of (the last one, the defense portfolio, which he abandoned in 2018), has assured that the Israeli executive is enhancing groups affiliated with Islamic State inside the interior of the strip “under the orders of Netyahu”. In a subsequent statement, Prime Minister’s office has not denied it: “Israel is working to overcome Hamas through multiple media, as recommended by all the heads of security authorities.”
The strategy has sounded the alarms between Israeli observers and journalists. In the past, Israel enhanced Hamas in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian authority. After in October 2023 – a raid that resulted in more than 1,200 fatalities and 250 kidnapped people, and that the Netanyahu government used as a justification to launch its offensive in Gaza -, there are few who defend the method implanted by the Israeli authorities.
Lieberman has declared the Israeli public radio that “Israel is delivering assault rifles and light weapons to criminal families in Gaza under Netanyahu’s orders.” The 67 -year -old politician, has described the receptors of these weapons as “Salafistas” that for some time. “No one can ensure that these weapons do not turn against us at some point,” he said. Lieberman’s words, now opposition deputy, have led to the statement of the Netyahu team.
For weeks, some Israeli newspapers have echoed the surprising activities carried out by Palestinian militias other than Hamas in the south of the strip. To the east of Rafah, a territory under the control of the Israeli army and that Israel considers a military zone, an armed group that rivals Hamas has been able to establish tents where it offers food boxes to Palestinian families. The militia, which calls himself an anti -terrorism service, has established that point just five kilometers from the passage of Kerem Shalom, which connects with Israel.
Gazati sources cited by the Israeli medium Haaretz They have assured that the group has a hundred armed men operating with the tacit approval of the Israel Army. The band leader is Yasser Abu Shabab, a lord of the Beduino War, a native of Rafah and indicated by the looting of humanitarian convoy from the beginning of the Israeli offensive.
The group itself has recently opened Facebook pages in which you advertise its efforts to provide help and security to the Rafah area, while criticizing Hamas and the Palestinian authority. “The popular forces have returned east of Rafah under the protection of the Palestinian legitimacy,” they announced in a statement published on Tuesday: “And they arrive at you under the commander in chief Yasser Abu Shabab.”
In the videos that circulate, men armed with assault rifles and military equipment in impeccable state are seen. In the helmets and armillas the Palestinian flag is embedded. They are also shown delivering food boxes to families from the strip or establishing stores as a distribution point. Publications include contact phones for displaced families to go to the area.
In another publication, they can be seen braking humanitarian trucks and making military maneuvers. Last week, Jonathan Whittall, head of the Ocha – the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs – in the occupied Palestinian territory, said, without giving more details, that Israel was providing dangerous and inadequate routes to its humanitarian teams, exposing them to looting. Another Gazati humanitarian source present in the strip told this newspaper that “many of the armed men who have intercepted trucks are coordinated with the Israeli occupation, acting under their orders in order to create a state of chaos and disorder.”
Since the beginning of the offensive against Hamas, the Israeli authorities have considered increasing the power of clans and great families of the strip as a measure to weaken Hamas. The strategy seemed not to find Palestinian interlocutors.
Israel has experience by promoting armed groups in neighboring territories as a way to undermine its enemies. In Lebanon, during the 15 years of civil war completed in 1990, the Israeli authorities adopted that strategy in the framework of the fight against Palestinian groups based in that country. Different Christian militias received military armament and training – even on Israeli soil – before committing massacres in fields of Palestinian refugees. Torture centers were also established that were directly managed by Lebanese militias, although directed under the orders and supervision of Israeli representatives.
