Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of a Gazan militia that collaborated with Israel and fought against Hamas, was killed in a gunfight in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Israeli security sources confirmed.
According to the sources, he was critically wounded and evacuated by the IDF to Soroka Hospital in Israel, where he died of his wounds.
The full circumstances of his death are still unclear, but most reports say he was killed in a clan feud rather than by Hamas.
Abu Shabab led the “Popular Forces” militia, battled against Hamas, and even seized control of large areas of Gaza. He was the most wanted man on Hamas’s hit list and was even dubbed the “walking dead man” due to the many threats to his life.
In an interview with Channel 12 several months ago to Walla, Abu Shabab said, “‘The Popular Forces’ is a national and independent Palestinian body, established to answer the need on the ground to defend civilians, to distribute humanitarian aid, and to seize new areas by force so they won’t be controlled by terrorism or by local extremism—in light of the collapse of official institutions and the dominance of indiscriminate armed power.”
He added that the group is a grassroots movement rather than a political one, aspiring to build a Palestinian society that is “stable, free of violence, calm, safe, and that believes in dialogue as a legitimate means to reach future understandings.”
When asked about the October 7 massacre, he said, “Hamas’s decision to attack that day gave justification to attack the Gazans, and it was a disastrous military decision that brought us into hell. But October 7 does not excuse what Israel did to our people through collective punishment and what it did to innocent civilians.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
