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23-11-2025
GAZA STRIP: Urgent questions are being raised over a patchwork of armed groups that have emerged to fight Hamas in Gaza over recent months.
They include groups based around family clans, criminal gangs and new militia, some of which are backed by Israel, as its prime minister recently admitted.
Elements within the Palestinian Authority which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and is a political rival to Hamas are also believed to be covertly sending support but these militia, each operating in its own local area inside the 53% of Gaza’s territory currently controlled by Israeli forces have not been officially included in US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which calls for an International Stabilization Force and a newly-trained Palestinian police force to secure Gaza in the next stage of the deal.
One of the largest militia is headed by Yasser Abu Shabab, who Popular Forces operates near the southern city of Rafah.
In one recent social media video, his deputy talks about working in co-ordination with the Board of Peace, the international body to be tasked with running Gaza under the plan.
Hossam al-Astal, who leads a militia called the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force near the southern city of Khan Younis, told Israeli media this week that “US representatives” had confirmed his group would have a role in Gaza’s future police force.
A US official said they had nothing to announce at this time.
Earlier this month, Astal grinned when I asked if he had spoken to the Americans about the future, and told me he would share the details soon.
I asked if those conversations left him happy.
“Yes,” he said, with a big smile.
Hossam al-Astal once worked for the Palestinian Authority. His group is small, maybe tens of fighters but is increasingly confident, and runs a well-supplied tent city near Khan Younis.
“Let’s say it’s not the right time for me to answer this question,” Astal smiled when I asked if Israel was supplying him but “we co-ordinate with the Israeli side to bring in food, weapons, everything.”
I asked how he paid for them.
“People all over the world are supporting us,” he replied. “It’s not all from Israel. They claim Israel is the only one supporting us and that we are agents of Israel. We are not Israel’s agents.”
He told me tens of families had come to live in his new site, just inside the Yellow Line that marks the territory currently controlled by Israel under the ceasefire deal and that more people were arriving every week.
“We are the next day for the new Gaza,” he told me. “We have no problem co-operating with the Palestinian Authority, with the Americans, with anyone who aligns with us. We are the alternative to Hamas” but many Gazans including those disillusioned with Hamas are unhappy with the new power given to these small and fragmented armed groups.
“Only a small number of men who have no religion, faith, or ethics have joined these criminals,” said Saleh Sweidan, who is currently living in Gaza City. “Gaza’s government was ruling us, and although there were many burdens on civilians, any government is better than gangs.”
“These groups that co-operate with the occupation (Israel) are the worst thing that the war has produced,” said Zaher Doulah, another Gaza City resident. “Joining them is not only dangerous, it is a great betrayal.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
