Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country used armed gangs in Gaza to help fight Hamas, his admission coming after a new wave of military strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip which left at least 52 people who are dead.
Netanyahu said the government had “activated” powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of “security officials”, its video declaration published Thursday to come after the former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused him of deploying the tactics.
The declaration marked the first public recognition of the government that she had supported armed Palestinian groups based on powerful families, who are accused by humanitarian workers of having conducted criminal attacks and stealing the aid of trucks while famine tracks the whole territory due to a punishing Israeli blockade.
An Israeli official quoted by the news agency The Associated Press said that one of the groups to which Netanyahu was referring was the so-called popular forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a local clan chief in Rafah.
Last month, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the group’s activities – although he was appointed “anti -terrorist service” in the report – claiming that sources in Gaza said that it consisted in some 100 armed men operating with the tacit approval of the Israeli army.
In recent weeks, the ABU Shabab group has announced online that its fighters have helped protect supplies from supplies to new distribution centers supported by the United States and Israel managed by the Shadow Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
“The Israeli opposition says that there has been no consultation in the Israeli government or the Israeli cabinet,” said Hamdah Salhut d’Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting on the capital of Jordan Amman. “Netanyahu says that these armed gangs … could essentially help the Israelis to defeat Hamas in Gaza.”
“But that does not go well in Israel, where people say that they are armed criminal companies in the Gaza Strip. That they should not be armed and that it is Israeli weapons that are put in their hands,” she said.
‘Human slaughterhouse’
Netanyahu made her declaration on another fatal day in Gaza, the soldiers reaching targets throughout the besieged coastal enclave where the paralyzing blocking brought the population to the edge of mass famine.
Mortal incidents, killing more than 100 and injuring much more, in the aid distribution sites managed by the GHF since last week have aroused a general conviction, the Israeli troops opening fire on the Palestinians asking for help four times since last week.
Chris Gunness, a former spokesperson for the United Nations Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), told Tel Aviv Tribune that the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had transformed Gaza into a “human slaughterhouse”.
“Hundreds of civilians are gathered like animals in fenced pens and are slaughtered like livestock in the process,” he said.
In the midst of the growing international conviction, the GHF closed its operations for a full day on Wednesday, saying the next day that it would reopen two aid distribution centers in the Rafah region, in the south of Gaza. He did not say when the aid distribution would resume.
At least 52 Palestinians were killed Thursday, according to the hospital sources that spoke in Tel Aviv Tribune. The sources said that 31 bodies had arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, with 21 admitted to Arab hospitals and Al-Shifa in Gaza City.
Israel killed four journalists in an attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital himself, also known as Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City
The premises of Gaza City, Fadi al-Hindi, told Tel Aviv Tribune that he had seen one of the strikes on Al-Nasser Street, near the Al-Shifa hospital, witness of death scenes after having run in front of his tent to check his children.
“When I arrived, I saw a man in pieces; he was cycling, and the lower half of his body had disappeared. Everyone on the street was injured, and we started recovering the injured pieces,” he said.
At least three Palestinians were killed during the strike, including children.
The Palestinian press agency WAFA also reported five deaths in the regions of Khan Younis, four west of Beit Lahiya north, and one south of Gaza City, as well as the injury of a child near Bureij in the center of Gaza.
WAFA also pointed out that Israeli forces opened fire on the Palestinians trying to reach a help center near Wadi Gaza.
In the meantime, Hamas chief Khalil Al-Hayya, said in a pre-recorded speech that the group had not rejected a cease-fire proposal to Gaza presented by the American special envoy Steve Witkoff, declaring that he had rather asked for changes to ensure an end of the war.
Al-Hayya added that Hamas is ready to engage in new talks and that communications with mediators are underway. Israel broke up a previous truce in March to resume war in Gaza.
