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Gangs hoard food aid entering Gaza and resell it at exorbitant prices
Since Israel’s offensive led to a security breakdown in Gaza that has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians. A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of flour has run as high as $60 in recent days, a kilogram of lentils up to $35. That is beyond the means of most residents in the territory, which experts say is at risk of famine and where people are largely reliant on savings 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war. (Production by Wafaa Shurafa).
9 replies
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One member, Abu Shabab, who denies all ties to Israel, now controls aid distribution
https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-hamas-war/article/armed-by-netanyahu-gangs-of-gaza-hold-sway-in-the-rubble-gzqqgh9z3
https://archive.ph/MORKK
Yasser Abu Shabab belongs to a Bedouin tribe opposed to Hamas, but has been disowned since ties to Israel were revealed
Amal Helles, Gabrielle Weiniger Sunday June 08 2025, 10.15pm BST, The Times
Yasser Abu Shabab found freedom in the form of an Israeli airstrike. Weeks after a prison break from a Hamas cell where he was jailed for drug trafficking, Abu Shabab is thought to be part of Israel’s grand plan to weaken Hamas. The 31-year-old Bedouin from the powerful Tarabin desert tribe has risen to the top of the Israeli war experiment in eastern Rafah, where Israeli tanks surround a barren sector teeming with the hungry and displaced, dependent on a new aid distribution system said to be run by contractors and secured by Abu Shabab.
He claims his group, self-styled as the Anti-Terror Service or Popular Forces, has no ties to Israel and has inherited the weaponry it has used to arm its estimated 300 fighters, many of whom are members of his clan, paid mercenaries and locals. “We have not and will not work with the occupation,” Abu Shabab said in his first public statement this week. “We’ve never met any Israeli officer,” he insisted, adding that his mission was a humanitarian project that welcomes families to areas under his control, fleeing war-torn Gaza and famine.
This week, however, Binyamin Netanyhu, Israel’s prime minister admitted arming Gazan clans, without naming Abu Shabab. “We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas… What’s wrong with that?” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “It’s only good. It saves the lives of IDF soldiers.” The outing met severe criticism from Israel’s opposition, its leader Yair Lapid accusing Netanyahu of arming an organisation “close to Isis”. “After Netanyahu stopped giving millions of dollars to Hamas, he moved on to giving weapons to organisations close to Isis in Gaza, all off the cuff, all without strategic planning, all leading to more disasters,” Lapid posted on X.
Abu Shabab’s force protects the distribution of aid by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund, sources said. The group has been mired in controversy after tens of thousands of Palestinians descended on newly opened distribution points last week and several dozen people were killed. Abu Shabab’s militia has filled the vacuum left by the retreat from eastern Rafah, where civil infrastructure has all but collapsed. For months, gangs and groups such as Abu Shabab’s have seized aid trucks coming in from Kerem Shalom, sources said, demanding protection money for their release while claiming to protect them from Hamas theft.
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