TNA Staff
The New Arab / December 4, 2025
Yasser Abu Shabab, the Gaza militia leader widely reviled as an Israeli collaborator, was reportedly shot dead in Rafah in “an internal dispute”.
Yasser Abu Shabab, the Gaza militia leader whose group worked with Israeli forces in southern Rafah, was reportedly killed on Thursday following what Israeli media described as an “internal dispute”.
Israeli outlets, including Ynet and Channel 14, said he died after a shooting linked to a feud between local families.
Channel 14 reported that Abu Shabab was killed under unclear circumstances, while Israel’s Army Radio described the incident as an assassination carried out by armed men east of Rafah.
Ynet cited Israeli security assessments indicating that Abu Shabab was killed. Members of his militia told the outlet that a confrontation between several families escalated into gunfire, during which one participant allegedly opened fire at him.
Israeli media also quoted an Israeli official saying Abu Shabab had been seriously wounded and transferred to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where he died of his injuries.
His militia, however, claimed he had survived the shooting and that Hamas was not involved in the incident. No party has issued an official statement, and the circumstances of the incident remain unclear.
Abu Shabab’s name had become widely associated with collaboration since Israel launched its ground operation in Rafah in May 2024.
His militia, known as the Popular Forces, operated in areas under full Israeli control and became notorious among Palestinians for looting humanitarian aid entering the south and acting directly in Israel’s interests.
According to Channel 14, Abu Shabab was shot by a member of his own group who had recently joined the militia. He had been with his deputy, Ghassan al-Dahini, at the time of the attack.
Abu Shabab, born in 1993 and from the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, had a long criminal record. He was previously imprisoned by Hamas on charges including drug trafficking and theft. He escaped during Israeli strikes on Gaza’s prisons and resurfaced in Rafah, where he rebuilt his network with Israeli backing.
Local accounts and Palestinian factions described him as a collaborator who recruited dozens of Palestinians in an attempt to position his group as an alternative to Hamas.
His family publicly disowned him in May 2025, issuing a statement declaring complete disavowal after his involvement in looting aid and conducting security operations for Israel in Rafah and Khan Younis.
Sources close to Hamas told The New Arab that Abu Shabab had participated in security operations for Israel that led to the arrest of resistance members and the killing of others.
After Israel’s ground operation in Rafah, he became a de facto security arm for the Israeli military in several operations, including the arrest of Dr Marwan al-Hums and his daughter Tasneem.
Palestinian factions had repeatedly vowed to target him and his deputy. In July 2025, Palestinian groups issued a statement branding him “a hired traitor” whose group was “stripped of any Palestinian identity” and whose blood was “forfeit to all resistance factions”.
The statement said such collaborators would “be cast aside like worn-out shoes” once Israel no longer needs them.
A recent Telegraph report said Abu Shabab’s militia was on the brink of collapse after losing Israeli air cover following the Hamas-Israel ceasefire agreement that ended two years of fighting.
With Israel withdrawing its protection, the group became exposed to reprisals, and Hamas reportedly seized vehicles and weapons previously supplied by Israel.
Neither Hamas nor Israeli officials have publicly commented on Abu Shabab’s reported killing.
