Latest news with #AvigdorLieberman
Wall Street Journal
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Netanyahu Wisely Arms Gaza Clans to Fight Hamas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed last week that Israel is arming local clans inside Gaza to fight Hamas. Critics immediately called the move dangerous and reckless. Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman even claimed one of the groups receiving weapons has ties to ISIS. I fought in Iraq and commanded U.S. soldiers on the streets of Baghdad, and I can tell you: This isn't a desperate gamble. It's a hard-learned, historically grounded strategy, and one of the most effective tools in asymmetric warfare.
CNA
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNA
Israel admits to supporting anti-Hamas armed group in Gaza
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the militant group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it. Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that the group Israel has been working with is part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab. The European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR) think tank describes Abu Shabab as the leader of a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks". Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was "giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons". "What did Lieberman leak? ... That on the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What is bad about that?" Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media on Thursday (Jun 5). "It is only good, it is saving lives of Israeli soldiers." Michael Milshtein, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, told AFP that the Abu Shabab clan was part of a Bedouin tribe that spans across the border between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai peninsula. Some of the tribe's members, he said, were involved in "all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that". Army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin on Friday confirmed the military supported arming local militias in Gaza but remained tight-lipped on the details. "I can say that we are operating in various ways against Hamas governance," Defrin said during a televised press conference when questioned on the subject, without elaborating further. "GANGSTER" Milshtein said that Abu Shabab had spent time in prison in Gaza and that his clan chiefs had recently denounced him as an Israeli "collaborator and a gangster". "It seems that actually the Shabak (Israeli security agency) or the (military) thought it was a wonderful idea to turn this militia, gang actually, into a proxy, to give them weapons and money and shelter" from army operations, Milshtein said. He added that Hamas killed four members of the gang days ago. The ECFR said Abu Shabab was "reported to have been previously jailed by Hamas for drug smuggling. His brother is said to have been killed by Hamas during a crackdown against the group's attacks on United Nations aid convoys". Israel regularly accuses Hamas, with which it has been at war for nearly 20 months, of looting aid convoys in Gaza. Hamas said the group had "chosen betrayal and theft as their path" and called on civilians to oppose them. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, said it had evidence of "clear coordination between these looting gangs, collaborators with the occupation (Israel), and the enemy army itself in the looting of aid and the fabrication of humanitarian crises that deepen the suffering of" Palestinians. The Popular Forces, as Abu Shabab's group calls itself, said on Facebook it had "never been, and will never be, a tool of the occupation". "Our weapons are simple, outdated and came through the support of our own people," it added. Milshtein called Israel's decision to arm a group such as Abu Shabab "a fantasy, not something that you can really describe as a strategy".
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Netanyahu admits to Israeli support for anti-Hamas armed gang
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the militant group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it. Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that the group Israel has been working with is part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab. The European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR) think tank describes Abu Shabab as the leader of a 'criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks'. Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Lieberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was 'giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons.' 'What did Lieberman leak? … That on the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas. What is bad about that?' Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media on Thursday. 'It is only good, it is saving lives of Israeli soldiers.'
TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
US group distributing aid in Gaza reopens sites after deadly shootings
The organisation halted distributions on Wednesday and said it was pressing Israeli forces to improve civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its operations after dozens of Palestinians were shot dead near the Rafah site over three consecutive days. The Israeli military said on Sunday and Monday its soldiers had fired warning shots, while on Tuesday they also fired warning shots before firing towards Palestinians it said were advancing towards troops. The GHF has said aid was safely handed out from its sites without any incident. The US organisation, which uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid to its distribution points inside Gaza, from where it is collected, said that it has so far distributed 8.4-million meals. The UN and international humanitarian groups refuse to work with the GHF because they said aid distribution is essentially controlled by Israel's military and forces the displacement of Palestinians by limiting distribution points to a few venues in central and southern Gaza. Footage released by the GHF this week showed hundreds of Palestinians crowding its site in Rafah, collecting aid from piles of stacked boxes without any clear system of distribution. Muslims around the world will begin celebrating Eid al Adha from Thursday, a holiday typically marked by slaughtering livestock, but in Gaza food is scarce after nearly two years of war and Israeli siege. Israeli opposition lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman accused the government on Thursday of arming Palestinian militia perceived to be hostile to Hamas in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel was acting 'in various ways' on the recommendation of the security establishment. It did not deny Lieberman's accusation. Israeli media reported Israel had transferred weapons to Yasser Abu Shabab, a leader of a large clan in the Rafah area, which is under full Israeli army control. Abu Shabab previously said he was building up a force to secure aid deliveries into some parts of Gaza. Hamas security officials told Reuters Abu Shabab was wanted for 'collaborating with the occupation against his people'. They said Hamas forces had killed at least two dozen of his men before January in what they said were clashes with looters. Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denied. On Wednesday, a Palestinian transport company contracted by UN agencies suspended operations indefinitely after an armed gang intercepted its aid trucks in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, killing one driver and injuring another. The war in Gaza has raged since Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in the October 2023 attack and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Saba Yemen
3 days ago
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Palestinian Mujahideen Movement: Zionist statements confirm malicious efforts to spread chaos and destruction
Gaza – Saba: The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement considered, on Thursday, the admission by Zionist Avigdor Lieberman and other Zionist parties that they are supplying weapons to the enemy army and some deviant groups as confirmation of the malicious efforts of the war criminal Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court, and his fascist government to spread chaos and destruction in the Gaza Strip. The movement said in a statement received by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba): "The Zionist enemy has not only committed its brutal crimes through bombing, terrorism, and the siege, but is also working to exacerbate the effects of the siege and the policy of starvation by feeding these gangs." Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
