[News] Western Media Mourns Abu Shabab, Its Favourite ISIS-Linked Militia Leader in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/western-media-mourns-abu-shabab-its-favourite-isis-linked-militia-leader-in-gaza/>
Western Media Mourns Abu Shabab, Its Favourite ISIS-Linked Militia Leader
in GazaDecember 6, 2025
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Yasser Abu Shabab. (Photo: via QNN)

*By Robert Inlakesh
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh>*

Among the Palestinian people, regardless of political affiliation, Yasser
Abu Shabab was known for who he truly was: a traitor and criminal who
committed heinous crimes against his own people.

This Thursday, Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of Israel’s ISIS-linked proxy
gangs in the Gaza Strip, was killed. The announcement triggered
celebrations throughout the besieged coastal enclave, while the Western
corporate media quickly worked to whitewash the image of the death squad
leader.

The death of Yasser Abu Shabab, a convicted drug trafficker and criminal
who is infamous among Palestinians for collaborating with the Israeli
military against them, has provided a clear example of corporate media
double standards and just how far Western media will go to distort
realities on the ground inside Gaza.

Upon the announcement of the gang leader’s demise, the popular response
among Palestinians was one of both relief and a sense that justice had been
served. Many even handed out sweets to mark the occasion.

Among the Palestinian people, regardless of political affiliation, Yasser
Abu Shabab was known for who he truly was: a traitor and criminal who
committed heinous crimes against his own people.

In stark contrast to the kinds of descriptions you will hear of Abu Shabab
from Palestinians, the Western media presented the Israeli-backed criminal
as a martyr and whitewashed his crimes. CNN described him as “the leader of
an anti-Hamas group,” while Reuters characterized the gangster as “the head
of an armed Palestinian faction that opposes Hamas in Gaza.”

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article entitled “A
Hamas Rival Falls in Gaza.” “Yasser Abu Shabab defied the terrorists in
these pages in July,” wrote the Editorial Board of the WSJ, referring to an
op-ed they published in his name earlier this year. The op-ed was called
“Gazans Are Finished With Hamas,” yet it was later pointed out by local
sources that Abu Shabab not only could not speak English but is said to be
illiterate in Arabic too.

The BBC and various other media outlets also adopted the narrative that Abu
Shabab was the leader of an “anti-Hamas” group, which in and of itself
totally whitewashes the nature of the five death squads that have been set
up by Israel in Gaza and are actively being used to create a “Second” or
“New Gaza” inside the 58% of the territory it currently occupies—during the
ceasefire.

*Whitewashing a Genocide-Aiding War Criminal*

Back in October 2023, the Israeli military began strategically bombing the
Gaza Strip’s prison facilities, enabling convicted criminals to roam free.
Abu Shabab was one such criminal who had been convicted of drug
trafficking. His role in the Gaza genocide began when he organized groups
of armed outlaws to begin the looting of humanitarian aid trucks entering
the besieged territory.

On May 6, 2024, the Israeli military launched its invasion of Rafah. The
first priority in this operation was seizing the border crossing with
Egypt, enabling their forces to fully control what enters and leaves Gaza.
It was not long before Abu Shabab’s name would become infamous across
Palestine and the wider region.

Israel provided air support and backing to Yasser Abu Shabab’s band of
gangsters, composed of hardline ISIS-linked Salafist militants and
criminals, to begin looting aid trucks. A specific designated route in
eastern Rafah was set up for the entry of such aid, which is where the Abu
Shabab gang would assault the trucks, stealing the desperately needed
supplies and demanding a bribe to allow the vehicles to pass. All of this
is well documented by the UN and international aid agencies.

As the majority child population of Gaza sank further and further into food
insecurity, Abu Shabab’s gangsters were living a life of relative luxury in
compounds monitored by the Israeli military and where the stolen aid was
hoarded. What then developed was a thriving black market inside Gaza, where
the looted goods were strategically drip-fed to the population and sold at
exorbitant rates that only the wealthy could afford.

Setting aside the kidnappings, murder of civilians, and armed robberies, it
is important to understand what the looting of aid truly meant. For the
Israelis, they were able to claim that they were letting in humanitarian
aid and use the excuse that Hamas fighters were the ones stealing it,
knowing full well where it truly was. Abu Shabab reaped the benefits of
becoming a mafia-style king among his armed thugs.

The aid that was being looted meant that children in Gaza were starved, the
elderly wasted away, and pregnant women could not sustain themselves. Aid
meant for the sick and to be used in hospitals was deprived of the
people—all as Abu Shabab and his traitorous thugs lived secure existences
under the watchful eye of the Israeli military.

In late 2024, the Washington Post and others began working to whitewash the
nature of the group and prepare the propaganda script that Abu Shabab’s
militiamen were a grassroots group of disillusioned Palestinians seeking to
overthrow Hamas. They worked to present Abu Shabab as the victim and a
criminal out of necessity, not by choice.

Then came the Gaza ceasefire in January 2025, during which the Israelis
worked to complete the transition from an aid-looting band of criminals
into a “grassroots anti-Hamas resistance.” Israel armed, trained, and
coordinated with these thugs, providing them with Israeli military helmets,
vests, and Palestinian flag patches to make them appear like a professional
and organic force.

When Israel violated and collapsed the ceasefire in March, Yasser Abu
Shabab appeared in videos and photos brandishing a rifle and wearing
patches bearing the name that the group would then adopt, the “Popular
Forces.”

The Israeli military and Shin Bet gave the so-called “Popular Forces”
direct orders and used them to carry out missions on their behalf against
Hamas and to aid their genocidal project targeting civilians. Theft,
kidnappings, beatings, hospital raids, and assassinations were carried out
by these criminals.

The Israelis openly admitted to backing them, knowing full well of their
links to ISIS and other hardline Salafist takfiri groups. They liked this
model so much that they began recruiting new collaborators to form three
other groups, with a fifth having been created since the ceasefire began.

Abu Shabab still managed the transfer of aid and was implicated in
coordinating with the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” privatized
aid scheme. This aid program was later dubbed a “death trap” by
Palestinians and resulted in the murder of up to 2,600 starving civilians
by both Israeli forces and American private military contractors.

The ridiculously named “Popular Forces,” perhaps the most unpopular
Palestinian armed force to have ever existed, were also intended to be used
by Israel to rule over a concentration camp being constructed in western
Rafah.

Since the ceasefire, Abu Shabab’s men have hidden under Israeli protection
from the far mightier forces of Hamas, who received broad popular support
in cracking down on the Israeli-backed death squads at the beginning of the
ceasefire. In violation of the ceasefire, these groups have continued to
work on behalf of their Israeli paymasters to carry out missions against
Hamas and the other Palestinian groups.

Yasser Abu Shabab’s murder served as a major blow to Israel’s project
inside Gaza, which aims to use these criminal collaborators to rule over a
portion of the territory. The UAE has also thrown its weight behind these
collaborator death squads. This is why there has been major damage control
in the media and an attempt to shape the narrative surrounding his death.

Initially the Israeli Hebrew media appeared to indicate that Abu Shabab was
assassinated, before the Israeli Army Radio asserted that his death had
come as a result of a tribal dispute. Yediot Aharonot went on to publish a
piece after this, claiming that the collaborator leader was beaten to death
and not shot, seemingly contradicting previous narratives that had asserted
he died due to gunshot wounds.

ù
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/a-new-low-western-media-promotes-isis-linked-gangsters-in-gaza/

Hamas, for its part, published a graphic asserting that Israel will not
protect such collaborators, but did not directly claim to have carried it
out; yet it was interpreted by many that this was insinuated.

The Bedouin Tarabin Clan, from which Abu Shabab comes, stated that
resistance fighters killed the gang leader. As the “Popular Forces,” now
led by takfiri collaborator Ghassan Duhine, announced that Abu Shabab was
shot dead while attempting to solve a dispute with the Abu Seneima family.

As expected, a range of different stories have spread on social media,
claiming everything from an infiltration operation carried out by the
“Arrow Forces,” tasked with combating collaborator gangs, to naming
specific fighters who allegedly died during a clash.

What appears to be the case is that both the “Popular Forces” and Israeli
media are lying to cover up what represents a major blow to their project;
however, the details of what truly transpired are currently unclear.

The reason they are compelled to lie and brush this killing off as a simple
mistake, as unlikely as that possibility appears, is so that it does not
lead to mass defections among the militia members. The Palestinian tribal
leaderships put out a joint statement affirming their solidarity with the
ruling forces of Hamas and against the collaborators. This comes as the
Palestinian security forces in Gaza have now put forth a 10-day amnesty
offer to those who choose to surrender themselves.

Already, many of these gangsters have been killed, captured, or handed
themselves over to the Hamas-led authorities during the past few months.
The killing of Yasser Abu Shabab is a major development in that it
demonstrates Israel’s inability to protect its collaborators. In addition,
the Israelis view them all as disposable proxies and did not bother even
eulogizing the disgraced criminal leader.

It was only truly the Western corporate media that bothered to whitewash
Abu Shabab’s unforgivable crimes against humanity and to turn him into a
martyr. The Western media are truly shameless and lie as easily as they
breathe when it comes to reporting on Palestine, only occasionally
producing grains of truth among a sea of ridiculous propaganda.

Unlike the five ISIS-linked collaborator gangs, there are, in fact,
Palestinians who are opposed to Hamas; they are primarily those affiliated
with the Palestinian Authority (PA) based in Ramallah. As unpopular as the
PA currently is, it does actually enjoy enough support and possesses the
means to potentially serve as a future governing force inside Gaza.

The lesson that should be learned from the dreadful gutter journalism
surrounding this issue is that, in order to understand what is happening in
Palestine, you do not need the Western media at all.

Israeli reporting, while evidently biased, is, in all honesty, a better
tool than the media of the West. It at least gives you a glimpse into the
thinking of Israeli society and its leadership, especially when you take
the time to translate and read the Hebrew-language media. If you then pair
this with independent on-the-ground reports, in addition to Palestinian
and/or Arabic-language media sources like Al Jazeera and Al Mayadeen, you
will get a well-rounded understanding of what is going on.

The English-language mainstream media, on the other hand, does not present
an Israeli nor a Palestinian perspective; it invents an entirely parallel
universe. It designs a fictional framing of reality and then attempts to
police the boundaries of all discussions about it. This is done for the
sole purpose of tailoring an artificially manufactured Zionist narrative,
curated to convince a Western audience that Israel is good and the
Palestinians are guilty for resisting.

Even when it comes to discussions of Israeli rights abuses, the confines of
the discussion on such issues are strictly policed across Western media in
order to ensure that Palestinians cannot speak their minds freely and
explain their predicament. At best, all Palestinians are allowed to be
victims—but not regular victims—victims who are forced to publicly accept
that their oppressors are also victims, and to denounce their own people
for fighting back.

*(The Palestine Chronicle)*


*– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He
focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this
article to The Palestine Chronicle. *
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