Anti-Hamas Popular Forces militia leader killed in Gaza

Yasser Abu Shabab, the leader of the Israel-backed Popular Forces militia, was killed on December 4 in the Gaza Strip. Shabab’s Popular Forces was the first anti-Hamas faction to emerge during the war in Gaza, marking the first signs in the conflict that Palestinians were taking up arms against the Islamist group’s rule. 

While Shabab was attempting to resolve a dispute between family members of the Abu Sunaymah clan, “an exchange of gunfire” occurred, and he was “martyred,” according to a statement posted on Facebook by his wife, Amna.

Security sources quoted by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation gave a different account, saying that Shabab was killed by members of his militia after “disputes over honor, money, and positions within the militia, which escalated in recent weeks and spiraled out of control.” Officials also stated that “Hamas was not involved — neither directly nor indirectly.”

Shabab was evacuated by Israeli security forces for treatment outside the Gaza Strip but succumbed to his wounds while being transported to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, Israel, Ynet reported.

While Hamas did not claim credit for the killing, it lauded Shabab’s demise, labeling him a “traitor” and stating that his death was the “inevitable fate of anyone who betrays his people and homeland.” Similarly, some Palestinian social media channels celebrated the reports of the militia leader’s killing by publishing derogatory illustrations of him.

Conversely, other anti-Hamas militias that emerged during the war published statements mourning the death of Shabab.

Ashraf al Mansi, the leader of the Popular Army – Northern Forces, offered his organization’s “sympathy” and “condolences” to Shabab’s family. Mansi reiterated that the Popular Army remained committed to working against “terrorism and extremism.” Meanwhile, Shawqi Abu Nuseira, the reported leader of the Popular Army in Rafah, proclaimed in a video statement, “We are all Abu Shabab,” and vowed that his group would continue fighting Hamas.

Shabab was a member of the Bedouin Tarabin tribe and was reportedly imprisoned by Hamas before the recent war in Gaza on criminal charges. The Popular Forces, which operates out of Rafah, was founded in early 2025, fields somewhere between 500 and 700 fighters, and “presents itself as a civilian movement formed to protect Palestinians, secure humanitarian aid, and restore order amid the war’s chaos.”

The Popular Forces claimed its first notable action in a June attack against a Hamas facility at Khan Younis University College of Applied Sciences, alleging that Hamas’s Arrow Unit was stockpiling confiscated humanitarian aid there. Hamas dismissed the militia as an Israeli proxy, a narrative strengthened when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly acknowledged that Israel had provided weapons to Gaza clans opposed to Hamas.

Following the death of Abu Shabab, his deputy, Ghassan Dahini, assumed the role of commander of the Popular Forces, Jusoor News reported.  

Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East.