Israel, with the support of the West, has been supporting a Palestinian rebel group and a history of looting aid trucks, Sky News has revealed following an extensive investigation.

As negotiators debate who will run Gaza after the war is over, Israel is already shaping a new reality on the ground.

In recent weeks, several tribal militias have declared allegiance to Yasser Abu Shabab, the head of a former looting gang which is positioning itself as Gaza’s future government.

Hamas fighters on Monday besieged the home of Palestinian traitor and leader of the Israeli-backed Popular Forces Yasser Abu Shabab in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.

Sky’s Data and Forensics Unit has been following Yasser Abu Shabab and his men for months, tracking their movements, vehicles, weapons and identities.

The British based news operation says their investigation has found that his militia is receiving food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, despite the US-funded aid organisation’s declared impartiality.

And in exclusive interviews with Sky News, one of Yasser Abu Shabab’s senior commanders and an IDF soldier serving on the Gaza border detailed how Israel is allowing them to smuggle cash, guns and cars into Gaza.

Experts say that Israel’s support for such groups is intended to “divide and conquer” and to ensure that it maintains a level of control in Gaza, whatever its future.

Cash, cars and cigarettes

Deep within the rubble fields of southern Gaza lie 50 hectares of pastoral lanes and elaborate villas.

Unlike in other parts of Gaza, residents here have ample supplies of food.

Medical facilities, a school, and even a mosque have been set up in recent months.

On social media, residents show off stacks of cash, brand new smartphones and imported dirt bikes.

A senior commander in the Popular Forces told Sky News that around 1 500 people are now living in the base, including 500-700 fighters. Reports indicate this number has swelled to 3 000 in the wake of the ceasefire.

An internal UN report, dated November 2024, identified Yasser Abu Shabab and his gang as “the most influential stakeholders behind the systematic and massive looting of convoys”.

A senior aid worker, who was working in Gaza until early this year, says he personally witnessed his staff negotiating the safe passage of trucks with Yasser Abu Shabab.

“Abu Shabab was empowered by cigarette smuggling,” he says. “In that kind of curtailed environment, you’re going to get Abu Shababs.”

Hassan Abu Shabab admits that the group was involved in looting trucks and smuggling cigarettes, though he says they only ever targeted commercial trucks they believed to be supplying Hamas.

“Hamas accused us of stealing the shipments, while in reality, we were bringing them for our families and distributing them,” he says.

“Yes, there were some breaches, with a few people who sold things off – fine. But things escalated. Hamas’s men came in and they killed my cousins. […] Fifty-four people were lost in that massacre.”

Sky News could not independently verify this claim, but there have been numerous reports of deadly clashes between Abu Shabab’s men and Hamas, which has declared him a wanted man.

It was after these clashes began, Hassan says, that Israel began coordinating with Yasser Abu Shabab to smuggle in cash, food, guns and vehicles for use in his battles against Hamas.

He says that these supplies are donated by members of the bedouin Tarabin tribe, to which Yasser Abu Shabab and his lieutenants belong, in Israel, Egypt and Jordan.

In order for these supplies to enter Gaza, Hassan says, requests must be made to a “coordination office” run by the Palestinian Authority, which then liaises with Israel and various Arab states to ensure the supplies’ entry into Gaza.

“This office is basically a communications room […] with Egyptian security, with Israeli national security, with Jordanian national security,” Hassan says, adding that this mechanism was created specifically for use by the Popular Forces.

“It provides us with weapons and money and with everything our people and forces need.”

The governments of Palestine, Egypt and Jordan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Yasser Abu Shabab and the Popular Forces also did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

‘A complete breach of humanitarian principles’

Food, Hassan says, is provided free of charge by a number of “donors”, including the controversial US-backed aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and is delivered to their camp by merchants.

He says the Popular Forces then keep some food for themselves, and distribute the rest within Rafah.

UNRWA’s Gaza director Sam Rose says that giving aid directly to an armed faction is a “complete breach of humanitarian principles”, which dictate that aid should be provided based on need and should not favour any side in a conflict.

Sky News found video evidence of numerous pallets of GHF food at Yasser Abu Shabab’s camp, including some with their wrapping intact.

Presented with our findings, a spokesperson for the GHF said that “every Gazan deserves to be fed with dignity – including those in areas controlled by the Popular Forces” and that “this is what true neutrality means”.

The Norwegian Refugee Council told Sky News that, under the Geneva Conventions, relief “must be humanitarian and impartial”.

“Once channelled through an armed group, aid no longer meets that definition,” the aid group said.

“It becomes indistinguishable from support to one side in the fighting and may expose agencies to accusations of complicity or liability under counter-terrorism and sanctions frameworks.”

The Desert Reconnaissance Battalion

A serving IDF soldier, speaking to Sky News from his base near Kerem Shalom, confirmed that Israel facilitates the supply of food, weapons and cash to the Popular Forces.

“The cooperation [with Yasser Abu Shabab] mainly goes through [Israel’s security service] Shin Bet, or some official state mechanism,” says Sami*.

“We just bring in the food, make sure it arrives in Gaza.”