Girl seen running through burning school after Israeli bombing raid in clips that have fueled global outrage
A child is seen running through a burning building after it was bombed in a deadly Israeli strike on Gaza in harrowing video images.
The overnight attack, one of 200 on the embattled enclave in the past 48 hours, killed more than 30 people.
World leaders have condemned the assault on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school in Gaza City, which had been housing displaced Palestinians, after the video emerged.
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Disturbing: Footage shared widely online reportedly shows a small child running from the fire after the strike on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi school site in Gaza City
The school was targeted as part of 200 attacks on Gaza in the past 48 hours, Israel's military confirmed.
Pictures and videos of fires tearing through the building and the destruction in the aftermath have since circulated online.
Footage showing a little girl running through the building, which Al Jazeera and other outlets claim to have verified, was shared by Israeli national broadcaster Kann News before being deleted.
It is not clear if the child in the video escaped the blaze.
Other images from the site, where displaced families had been sheltering, show the badly burned corpses of adults and children.
In the hours since, Gaza's Hamas-run government has said that some 18 children were among those killed in the attack, which it condemned it as a 'brutal massacre.'
In a statement, it said Israel has been 'deliberately and systematically' targeting shelters for displaced people 'in a flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws, and in a blatant attempt to inflict the largest possible number of civilian casualties.'
The Israeli military said it had 'struck key terrorists who were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center embedded in an area that previously served as the 'Faami Aljerjawi' School.'
It claimed that 'numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.'
Deadly assault: Overnight Israel launched a strike on a school in the territory which had been sheltering displaced people, with rescuers saying at least 20 were killed in the attack
On Monday afternoon, the Israel army issued a far-reaching evacuation order for much of the southern Gaza Strip, warning people to move to the Mawasi area on the coast.
'The IDF will launch an unprecedented attack to destroy the capabilities of terror organizations [in this area],' the military's Arabic-language spokesman, Col Avichay Adraee, said on X.
He added that the evacuated area is considered 'a dangerous combat zone' and that the coastal area would be designated a 'safer zone.'
Overall, more than 50 people have been killed in attacks since dawn on Monday, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
Responding to recent Israeli attacks in an interview, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they are taking a humanitarian toll on civilians that can no longer be justified as a fight against terrorism.
'Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has increasingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism,' he told broadcaster WDR in a televised interview.
He added he planned to hold a call with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week to tell him 'to not overdo it,' though for 'historical reasons', Germany would always be more guarded in its criticism than some European partners.
The UN said on Sunday that at least 3,785 people had been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the overall death toll to 53,939 - most of whom are civilians.
Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Palestinian terrorists also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
Donald Trump has said he wants to end the war in Gaza 'as quickly as possible', with sources reportedly suggesting that he could announce a ceasefire 'within the coming days.'
Counting the cost: Palestinians inspect the area following an Israeli airstrike at dawn on the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City
'We want to see if we can stop it. And we've talked to Israel, we want to see if we can stop this whole situation as quickly as possible,' the US President told reporters as he boarded Air Force One.
Meanwhile, Sky News Arabia and other news outlets in the region cited sources as saying that there is a growing likelihood that Trump will announce a ceasefire in the coming days.
It would come as part of a deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages, the anonymous 'knowledgeable sources' reportedly said.
Israel has been intensifying its offensive in Gaza over recent weeks, at the same time as its three-month blockade of humanitarian supplies into the war-ravaged strip has sharpened international condemnation.
The day before, Israeli strikes killed 22 people and wounded dozens more across the Palestinian territory, the Gaza civil defense agency said.
Arab and European nations gathered yesterday to seek an end to the conflict while Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for an arms embargo on Israel.
He also called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza 'massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel', describing the territory as humanity's 'open wound.'
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The Sun
19 minutes ago
- The Sun
Iran's barbaric brutality is spiralling out of control – regime is powder keg with one way out, says resistance fighter
THERE is "no doubt" Iran would use a nuclear bomb on its enemies, a female activist has revealed. IT researcher Fereshteh, from Tehran, warned the "crisis-stricken regime" is clinging on to power by forcing its people to live in extreme poverty and ramping up executions. 15 15 15 15 Speaking to The Sun, Fereshteh, 35, revealed that she joined a resistance unit of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran after the regime tortured and executed her beloved sister. Hundreds of resistance units have been set up all over the country - aimed at undermining the regime's authority. Members organise and lead protests, destroying statues and images of regime leaders and documenting human rights abuses. Fereshteh revealed the situation in Iran is a "powder-keg" and a "ticking time bomb" ready to explode as Iranians grow angrier than ever at repression, corruption and high prices. She says things are worse now than in September 2022 when the death of a Kurdish girl named Mahsa Amini triggered mass protests. and brought the mullahs' regime to the brink of collapse. Fereshteh said: "There was the massacre of more than 750 innocent people by the State Security Forces, which were in fact street executions. "More than 30,000 arrests involved torture and heavy bails for release, sometimes rape. "And the abandonment of bodies in rivers or unfinished buildings, sometimes poisoning people with tainted juice or toxic serums in prisons, and the intentional failure to care for sick or tortured prisoners that led to their death, and many other crimes, the protests continued for months. "The outraged people had nothing more to lose. "After that, the regime tried hard to impose an atmosphere of repression by increasing executions and creating a suffocating environment." My dad has been sentenced to death in Iran on trumped-up charges and faces imminent execution - we must save him 15 15 15 Fareshteh said there was a 34 per cent increase in executions in 2023 - with 860 in one year. In 2024, there were at least 1,000 - and this year, new records are being set month by month. "Now the situation is worse than before," Fareshteh said. "Inflation is crippling, and while people's salaries and incomes have not changed much, the exchange rate has risen. "The Iranian people are almost four times poorer, and prices have increased by the same amount, most people's tables are getting smaller every year, and more are living below the poverty line." Fereshteh said the regime's brutality towards its own people has increased since the Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebels last December. "This regime has no solution other than increasing executions at home, especially after the fall of the Syrian dictator and the successive blows to its proxy forces in the region," she said. The mullahs' regime tortured and executed my innocent sister, even burying her body themselves, creating lasting trauma for my family that I will never forget or forgive Fareshten, resistance unit member "Ali Khamenei, the regime's Supreme Leader, used to call Syria, its strategic depth, and he repeatedly said that if we don't fight in Syria and Iraq, we will have to face the enemy in Iran's major cities. "Now, the regime sees its only way out in trying harder to build nuclear weapons and acquire a bomb. "In the absence of any solution in the crisis-stricken mullah regime, the situation in Iran is like a powder keg. "And everyone, even the regime's leaders, constantly warn about the explosion of people's outrage from repression, corruption, and high prices. "The difference is that the people of Iran, especially the youth, know that the regime has never been in its current state of weakness." Fareshteh revealed how her activities for her resistance unit include painting political graffiti and encouraging others to stand against the regime. 15 15 She said she joined the unit to avenge her sister's death which she will neither "forget or forgive". Being a member of the resistance in Iran can carry a death sentence, but Fareshteh remains undeterred. She said: "I am the continuer and avenger of my beloved sister, who was the top student in her high school in mathematics and physics. "The mullahs' regime tortured and executed my innocent sister, even burying her body themselves, creating lasting trauma for my family that I will never forget or forgive. "I carry out activities involving posting pictures and doing graffiti, and I speak to and raise awareness among the people about the social responsibility that rests on all of us. "International support is very important. At one time, the regime's lobbies deceived foreign countries by pretending that everything was fine in Iran." 'Murderous regime' She added: "In the 2022 uprising, technology unveiled the countless crimes of the corrupt and murderous regime. "International solidarity will press Western governments to stop appeasing and dealing with this dictatorship." Fareshteh's comments comes after the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) presented shocking details about a covert nuclear weapons facility operated by the regime. Chilling satellite pictures released last month showed a secret nuclear site codenamed "Rainbow". It is believed the base is being used to develop nuclear missiles with a 2,000 mile (3,000km) range. 15 15 15 The NCRI say that Tehran is using oil and chemical facilities as a front to create terrifying nuclear weapons with the ability to strike US bases in the Middle East. Feresteh says the discovery of the base comes as no surprise as the regime's goal has always been to acquire an atomic bomb to "blackmail" the international community. "Repression at home and the export of terrorism and fomenting crisis have been one of the foundations of this regime's survival since its inception," she said. Now, the regime sees its only way out in trying harder to build nuclear weapons and acquire a bomb Fareshteh, resistance unit member "In the past two years, everyone has seen that the main obstacle to peace and security in the region has been the mullah regime. "After the fall of the Assad dictatorship... the only way out it sees is to increase executions at home and increase its activities to acquire an atomic bomb as a lever to continue blackmail the international community. "This regime has not stopped trying to acquire a bomb for even a day. "And the recent revelation... clearly exposes the regime's unreliability and deception in its pursuit of a bomb." Iran's secret nuke site 'Rainbow' Exclusive by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) CHILLING satellite pictures reveal Iran's sprawling secret nuclear site codenamed "Rainbow". Sources in the country have uncovered how the base is being used to develop nuclear-capable missiles with a 2,000-mile range - able to strike US bases in the Middle East. Tehran's tyrannical regime is using oil and chemical facilities as a cover for nuclear bases, bombshell docs shared with The Sun by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reveal. Haunting aerial images expose a network of clandestine sites - including "Rainbow" - used by iron-fist leaders to create terrifying nuclear weapons. A powerful nuclear blast from Iran could have disastrous consequences for the Middle East - and beyond - thanks to the capability of the warheads. Now sources inside Iran have revealed the regime's nuclear weaponisation entity, Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research's (SPND) secret project to accelerate nuclear ability. Hidden under the guise of a chemical production facility, the crowning jewel of the operation is a base known internally as the 'Rangin Kaman (Rainbow) Site". It is some distance from Iran's already known nuke bases, and is masked as a chemical production company known as Diba Energy Siba. 'Fighting spirit' Fereshteh said that despite facing "unprecedented repression and executions" the regime has failed to contain protests and even executions are not intimidating the public as they once did. She told how the political prisoners at some of Iran's most notorious prisons have been on hunger strike every Tuesday for 68 weeks as a protest against the death penalty. "Every week, their statement, which is courageously smuggled out of prison and published, speaks of their fighting spirit and loyalty to their commitment to freedom and the rejection of the death penalty," Fereshteh said. "Imagine that they are trapped in the prisons of religious fascism, but despite all the pressure the regime exerts on them, these strikes have continued for 68 weeks. "The people's anger and hatred grow stronger each day. "During the uprisings, I witnessed young girls, and even elderly women remove their hijabs when passing by the oppressors, signaling their defiance. "The intensity of this anger has reached a point where the regime no longer dares to harass women for not wearing hijabs as aggressively as before." Call for support Fereshteh has now called on the governments of the US and UK to "stand with the Iranian people" to prevent the regime completing its nuclear programme. She said: "The British government must immediately activate the trigger mechanism to prevent the regime from having more time to complete its nuclear program. "Since this regime will under no circumstances abandon its efforts to produce a bomb, this again underscores the necessity for the West to stand with the main opposition to this regime and the people of Iran and to provide political support for their efforts to change the regime." 15 15 She added: "Not a day passes without various segments of the population - retirees, workers, teachers, nurses, medical staff, students, and those whose wealth has been plundered by IRGC-affiliated gangs - taking to the streets to protest against the regime. "Moreover, the increasing demonstrations from farmers and factories and businesses facing ongoing water and power shortages illustrate that we are witnessing an explosive society. "Today, in Iran, there is no segment of society whose patience has not run out with this anti-people regime. "The regime has managed to maintain its grip on power solely through blatant repression and a daily increase in executions. "For decades, the people of Iran have watched with disbelief and pain the leniency and wrong policies of the West towards a regime that is the main cause of instability and warmongering in the region and terrorism globally. "No one here doubts that the ruling fascist regime must go, and the only way to end the crimes at home and the warmongering, terrorism, and support for terrorist forces abroad is to end this regime. "This is achievable. "Our expectation from the international community is to stand with the people and resistance of Iran."
The Herald Scotland
22 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Mohamed Soliman's antisemitic attack deepens divisions in Boulder
They ignore the taunts and epithets flung by college students and counter-protesters, focusing on their goal: Bring them home. These moments, these footsteps, they weren't political. It wasn't about their personal views on Israel's war against Hamas. "We just want them home," said longtime marcher Lisa Turnquist, 66. "That's why we do this," she said. The small group of "Run for their Lives" marchers in this college town were sharing their message on June 1 - 603 days since Hamas snatched concertgoers and ordinary people from southern Israel and vanished them into Gaza's tunnels. But halfway through the Sunday afternoon march, a suicidal Muslim immigrant attacked them with a flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, injuring 12, including an elderly Holocaust survivor. Many regular marchers of the group are Jewish. Six of the injured in what federal officials have described as a terror attack were from the same synagogue, Bonai Shalom. But instead of bringing the community together, the attack appears to have further exacerbated existing fault lines across this wealthy, liberal city where pro-Palestinian protests verging on outright antisemitism have become a way of life for elected leaders and college students. After the attack, someone posted "Wanted" signs on the Pearl Street Mall just steps from the scene, naming the majority of city council members as guilty of "complicity in genocide" for refusing to pass a ceasefire resolution and not divesting from businesses that are helping Israel wage its war against Hamas. "Not only has the rhetoric become increasingly centered around violence and division but we have an increasing amount of cowardice, from cowardly administrators, cowardly government officials," said Adam Rovner, who directs the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver. "We're seeing it much more clearly now. And unfortunately Jewish communities are paying the cost." Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces more than 118 state and federal charges in connection with the attack, including hate-crime accusations. Investigators say he confessed and remains unrepentant, telling them he deliberately targeted the marchers because he considered them a "Zionist Group." Divisions continue after Pearl Street attack Amid the extreme positions on the Israel-Hamas war, Run for their Lives believed most people could get behind their message. The national Run for their Lives organization has sponsored walks or runs in hundreds of cities and towns since Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust in which over 1,000 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. As of June 5, 56 hostages are still being held by Hamas, although that number includes both the living and presumed dead. On June 1, as she had dozens of times in the past, Turnquist was pushing her Australian shepherd Jake in a stroller as the group made its way past the historic Boulder County Courthouse on Pearl Street pedestrian mall. She saw a man dressed like a landscaper - odd, she thought, since it was a Sunday - and thought it would be best to just keep walking, as she had done so many times before when counter-protesters screamed and yelled. There had never been physical violence against the group, but there were insults, jeers, accusations that the marchers themselves support genocide. Turnquist and others who have marched said they often felt unsafe. "We ignore the people who are against us," said Turnquist, who is Jewish. "We can't let Boulder tell us what to do. We can't let university students tell us we can't do stuff like this, because that's what they do. Week after week, people are yelling at us all the time, saying we are causing genocide. We're not causing genocide. We were attacked and we are fighting to get our hostages back." The conflict between the marchers and counter-protesters is a microcosm of the vicious disputes that have long been on display in Boulder, where Palestinian students disrupted classes earlier this year. Turnquist, the protest marcher, said knowing the group lacked the full support of local elected officials made it harder to feel comfortable during those Sunday protests. She said she went into a Boulder shop at the start of the Gaza war while wearing a necklace with a Jewish symbol on it. The shopkeeper suggested she hide it, so she didn't become a target, she said. "One of the things I remember saying was ... the masks are going to come off and we're going to see who the antisemites are. We're going to see them for who they are. And sure enough it started happening all over," Turnquist said. "It was people that I didn't even think would be antisemites - it was some friends." Nationally, polls have shown that younger Americans are more likely to side with Palestinians than with Israel, including young Jews. And an April 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 31% of Jews younger than 35 felt Hamas' reasons for fighting were valid, compared to just 10% for Jews aged 35 and older. Turnquist said the Sunday marches were deliberately non-political: They didn't call for attacks on Hamas or for more retaliation by Israel. Instead, they focused on the one thing they thought everyone would agree with. To Soliman, that apparently didn't matter. According to investigators, he researched the protest group online, took concealed-weapons classes and planned his attack for a year. Video recordings of the attack captured Soliman shouting "Free Palestine" as he threw Molotov cocktails into the crowd of marchers, setting fire to several victims, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor. "Mohamed said it was revenge as the Zionist group did not care about thousands of hostages from Palestine," Boulder police wrote in an arrest affidavit. "Mohamed said this had nothing to do with the Jewish community and was specific in the Zionist group supporting the killings of people on his land (Palestine)." Soliman's motivation, as reported by police, mirrored similar language used by the sole member of the Boulder City Council who declined to sign onto a group statement from city leaders condemning the attack. Councilmember Taishya Adams condemned the attack but said she declined to sign the group statement, which identified Soliman's actions as antisemitic, because it didn't specifically note that he was also motivated by what she considers anti-Zionism. "If we are to prevent future violence and additional attacks in our community, I believe we need to be real about the possible motivations for this heinous act," Adams wrote in a statement explaining her decision. "Denying our community the full truth about the attack denies us the ability to fully protect ourselves and each other." Responded Councilmember Mark Wallach: "Your efforts to make what I think is a pedantic distinction as to whether a man who attempted to burn peaceful elderly demonstrators alive - to burn them alive, Taishya - was acting as an antisemite or an anti-Zionist is simply grotesque." Jewish groups in Boulder have previously tangled with Adams over what they say are her own antisemitic remarks regarding Palestine, and pro-Palestinian protesters repeatedly disrupted city council meetings. Adams did not return a request for comment from USA TODAY. On June 5, the first meeting after the attack, the mayor announced that in-person public comment would be prohibited because pro-Palestinian protesters have so often disrupted meetings. Among those who have watched protesters disrupt council meetings was Barbara Steinmetz, a Holocaust survivor burned in the June 1 attack. In a video interview last year, Steinmetz recounted what it was like to attend council meetings alongside pro-Palestinian protesters, including one interaction with a woman carrying a sign referencing "from the river to the sea," the rallying cry of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which called for erasing Israel. "I turned to her and said, 'Do you realize that that means you want to kill me? You want me destroyed?' But she just turned away," Steinmetz said. "Jews in Boulder and maybe Denver and probably in cities all around the world, are afraid of wearing their Jewish stars. They're taking down their mezuzahs so that no one will know that it's a Jewish house. They're not identifying themselves because they're frightened." Soliman's attack didn't happen in a vacuum Rovner, from the University of Denver, said pro-Palestinian college protests helped lay the groundwork for increased violence, in part because many students don't truly appreciate what it means to repeat and thus desensitize the meaning of chants like "globalize the intifada" and declarations that Palestine should run "from the river to the sea." Says the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs: "Calls to 'globalize the intifada' are not calls for civil disobedience, general strikes, or negotiations. They are calls for the murder of Israelis and Jews around the world and must be taken seriously by governments and law enforcement agencies." Like CU-Boulder, the University of Denver was home to an encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters last year, and Rovner said there were repeated confrontations between the protesters and Jewish students walking to class. Rovner has a close friend who often participated in the Boulder walks. "These are precisely the kinds of things that cause terrorist groups to pick up weapons to attack people," Rovner said. "When you heighten the rhetoric of hatred and demonize one country and claim to only be opposing an ideology, you are almost inevitably going to see action based on that rhetoric." Jewish scholars and community leaders say the attack on Boulder was frustratingly predictable given the sharp rise in antisemitism sparked by the war in Gaza, with escalating rhetoric, protests and demonstrations nationwide, particularly on college campus and college towns. In response to those warnings, President Donald Trump specifically targeted pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, launching investigations into 40 campuses that his administration has accused of not doing enough to protect the Jewish community from participants. Security and extremism experts say a significant factor in driving violence is that many protesters draw no distinction between someone who is Jewish and someone who supports Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza, which is home to about 2.1 million Palestinians. In April, a man firebombed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's house hours after a Passover celebration, telling police he targeted Shapiro over "what he wants to do to the Palestinian people." And on May 22, a man shot and killed a young couple outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. "Free Palestine," the man shouted. "I did it for Gaza," he later told investigators. "These attacks and many more in recent months - on campus, at Jewish institutions and this time at a peaceful gathering here in Boulder - have targeted people whose only 'offense' is that they are Jewish. Or someone thought they were Jewish. Or they were standing as allies alongside Jews," the Rocky Mountain Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to USA TODAY. A report released last month found that antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024 hit a record high for the fourth consecutive year. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security on June 5 issued a security alert warning that more antisemitic violence could be coming. "The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the security agencies said in the warning. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States." Survivor returns to site of the attack Run for their Lives organizers say they remain undeterred as they gear up for this weekend's march. "This didn't happen in a vacuum. It is the result of increasingly normalized hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, and silence in the face of rising antisemitism. But we will not be deterred," Rachel Amaru, the founder of Boulder Run For Their Lives said at a June 4 rally for the victims. "We invite everyone to join us, not just with your feet, but with open hearts and minds. Choose humanity over hate, curiosity over judgment, and learning over condemnation." The day after the attack, Turnquist returned to the scene of the attack to lay flowers and display a small Israeli flag on behalf of her injured friends. Still shaken by the attack just 24 hours earlier, she visibly shook as she recounted her efforts to help the victims. "I woke up this morning and didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to get out of bed and didn't want to talk to my friends who were calling me. But this is when we have to get up and stand up, and we have to push back," Turnquist said. And she promised to be back walking every Sunday until all the hostages are home.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
David Pratt: Israel's arming of Gaza's crime gangs is sure to backfire
Speaking at his military farewell ceremony last week before taking up his new post, Zini it seems was keen to point out that messianism, far from being a dirty word, is in fact what underpins today's Israel. 'We are all messianic – like David Ben-Gurion and the founding fathers of the nation, who saw in our people's grand vision a message for the entire world,' the new domestic spy chief told his audience. Israel by its deeds and actions has never been shy of sending out messages to the rest of the world – especially militarily. More often than not, they have not gone down well, especially in relation to its actions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and subjugation of the Palestinians. READ MORE: Freedom Flotilla urges UK Government to 'protect' ship from Israel as it nears Gaza Last week was no exception, with reports surfacing of what could best be described to say the least as a controversial strategy in Israel's efforts to defeat Hamas. In short, over the course of these past months Israel has been arming criminal gangs that loot aid convoys and are led by a known thief and drug trafficker with links to the terrorist Islamic State group (ISIS). The Shin Bet, which Zini is about to head up, has it seems been at the forefront of such a strategy and under his leadership few doubt things will change. Why should they change, ask critics, when the man who appointed him, Netanyahu, appears only too happy to confirm the measures? 'Israel is working to defeat Hamas in various ways, on the recommendation of all heads of the security establishment,' Netanyahu's office declared last week as the reports surfaced. Hours later Netanyahu himself doubled down on the statement, his tone almost one of nonchalance and disregard. 'We made use of clans in Gaza that are opposed to Hamas … What's wrong with that?' Netanyahu said in a video posted on Twitter/X. 'It's only good. It saves the lives of Israeli soldiers,' he then added. But according to some observers, both inside Israel itself and beyond, there is a lot to be concerned about regarding such a strategy. Among those Israeli voices condemning the policy was former Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, now leader of Israel's right-wing opposition Yisrael Beiteinu party. 'The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with Islamic State, at the direction of the prime minister ... it's total madness,' Lieberman said in a radio interview, while also adding that Shin Bet was aware of the weapons transfers. Lieberman's concerns are based primarily on the fact that with no way of monitoring or following where such weapons end up, there is no guarantee they will not be directed at Israel It's a view shared by many. But it's not just Israelis that would be on the receiving end of such a policy and already Palestinians in Gaza are feeling its brutal impact. So just who are these 'clans', as Netanyahu calls them, what are their origins and how is their presence affecting the lives of Gazans and threatening the future of the territory? The first thing to realise here is that ever since the early days of the current conflict in Gaza – which started after Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack – the Shin Bet along with other Israeli intelligence officials have worked hard to identify and support potential Palestinian rivals to undermine Hamas. Among those identified was an armed gang led by a man named Yasser Abu Shabab, a thief and drug trafficker from the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Some reports suggest that Abu Shabab was previously jailed by Hamas for smuggling drugs, and that his brother was killed by Hamas when the group cracked down on attacks on UN aid convoys. Abu Shabab is descended from the influential Bedouin Tarabin clan, which spans southern Gaza, the Sinai, and the Naqab Desert. The area between Gaza and Sinai is known for drug smuggling and Abu Shabab's group has previously been accused of involvement in smuggling operations linked to Egyptian jihadi groups, hence Avigdor Lieberman's claims of his connection to ISIS which has a presence in the area and is known to be involved in the drug networks. Calling itself both the 'Anti-Terror Service' or 'Popular Forces', Abu Shabab's group is believed to comprise a relatively small number of members, perhaps in the hundreds. But despite its diminutive size, Israel saw it as an opportunity to help undermine Hamas. It's incorporation into such a strategy, say analysts, also underscored Netanyahu's uncertainty on who should take over the future administration of Gaza. 'If you think about who really can be an alternative to Hamas in Gaza, you have two options: either an Israeli military administration or the Palestinian Authority,' said Brigadier General Shlomo Brom, a former top Israeli military strategist, now retired. Speaking to the New York Times (NYT), Brom explained how Netanyahu does not want either because a full occupation of Gaza would be costly, financially and politically, for Israel. On the other hand, engaging with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Brom said, would probably require a discussion about a Palestinian state, a prospect opposed by leading members of the Israeli government 'So they're looking for other solutions,' Brom was cited by the NYT as saying, describing the options as 'dubious'. READ MORE: UK won't recognise Palestine at UN conference despite 'discussions', reports say Late last year, these 'dubious' options came in the shape of Abu Shabab's gang. Eyewitnesses in Gaza often described how the gang sets up berms to waylay aid convoys along the Israeli-controlled route from Kerem Shalom, where they waited with Kalashnikovs and other weapons. Georgios Petropoulos, a senior United Nations official who was based in Gaza last year, called Abu Shabab 'the self-styled power broker of east Rafah'. One internal United Nations memo seen by The Washington Post concluded that the gangs 'may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence' or 'protection' from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). One gang leader, the memo said, established a 'military-like compound' in an area 'restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF'. That leader was Abu Shabab. Throughout this time, Israeli, Palestinian and international observers have insisted that the gang's activity could simply not operate without the awareness of the IDF. 'There is no chance an armed militia or clan can work out in the open like this without Israel's agreement, and definitely not in Rafah,' said Michael Milshtein, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer, in an interview with the Financial Times ( FT). Following last week's admission from Netanyahu that Israel was arming Abu Shabab's gang, the official page of the 'Popular Forces' media office issued a statement continuing to deny any connection with the Israeli army. 'We wholly reject these allegations,' the statement read. 'We regard this as a blatant attempt at distorting the image of a popular force that was born out of suffering and in the face of oppression, theft and corruption.' But as the specialist Middle East website Mondoweiss highlighted in an online article last Friday, 'analysts have continued to point out that Abu Shabab's carefully curated social media presence, with the appearance of statements in both English and Arabic, is beyond the capabilities of the Gaza gang and is likely the work of the Shin Bet'. In a video posted last Wednesday, Abu Shabab can be heard calling on people from eastern Rafah to return to their homes, saying that food, medicine and shelter would be provided. The footage features images of several tents that appeared to have been erected in the area. Mondoweiss also cited Muhammad Shehada, a writer and civil society activist from Gaza, as saying that today Abu Shabab 'works in his new capacity as the head of his rebranded 'national force' of gang members to loot aid under the Israeli military's protection, carry out surveillance of resistance forces on its behalf and secure aid going to the murky US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), which is the US contractor tasked with delivering aid to Palestinians instead of the UN'. Israel has sought to overhaul aid distribution, backing the controversial GHF private scheme to hand out aid under the supervision of security contractors and Israeli soldiers. The Israelis insist the new system is vital to ensure Hamas is unable to benefit from aid that would help support its continued resistance. But UN officials and others have refused to participate in the scheme, calling it a 'weaponisation' of aid and saying they have not seen evidence of systematic diversion by Hamas. In fact, Hamas itself has now upped its crackdown on Abu Shabab's gangs. In its recent coverage, Mondoweiss detailed how Hamas has set up what has been dubbed the Arrow Unit. The unit was first formed over a year ago in March 2024, when the phenomenon of looting by armed gangs began to spread throughout Gaza and began as informal groups of young men. Abu Hadi, a member of the Arrow Unit who is also an officer in the Gaza police force, told Mondoweiss that he decided to join the unit after 'witnessing thieves robbing food stores and international kitchens, without concern for the people's hunger'. Since then, the Arrow Unit has conducted operations going head on with Abu Shabab's gangs who Hamas identifies as collaborators with the Israelis. In last Wednesday's video by Abu Shabab, he can be heard saying that that the 'Popular Forces' are working under 'Palestinian legitimacy', a phrase that Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders often use to refer to their government. The Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based rival of Hamas, has declined to comment on reports of connections between Abu Shabab and its government, yet another reminder of the power vacuum that exists in Gaza. READ MORE: Israeli forces kill six Palestinians near Gaza aid site The obvious threat posed to Gazans aside, Israel's attempts to exploit this security vacuum it created by backing Abu Shabab's gangs as an alternative to Hamas rule is a tactic not without precedent. Always in the past too, this has only served to make an already dire situation in Gaza even worse. Critics of Israel's policy say what is unfolding on the ground in this collaboration between Shin Bet, the IDF and the gangs points to a nefarious longer-term scheme, used to push Israel's starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide policies. They remind also of the danger of creating a Frankenstein monster type militia in the region. Last week, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid responded to the claim that Israel is arming Abu Shabab with a warning that it could see a repeat of a grim history for the country. He reminded that for decades, including multiple terms in office for Netanyahu, Israel allowed Hamas to grow as a counter to rivals Fatah, allowing Hamas to entrench its control in Gaza. It was seen as a cynical bid to prevent a unified Palestinian leadership from taking hold in Gaza and the much larger territory of the West Bank. 'After Netanyahu finished 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 warned on social media. His views were echoed by a recent editorial in the Israeli daily Haaretz. 'Instead of any serious discussion about reconstruction and the enclave's future, Netanyahu is advancing a messianic vision that includes crimes against humanity in the form of ethnic cleansing and population transfer,' observed the newspaper. In advancing that 'messianic vision', Israel's arming of gangs in Gaza will doubtless go on. Netanyahu after all now has his chosen head of Shin Bet, David Zini, to implement that vision, and he too by his own admission is 'messianic'.
