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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country used armed gangs Gaza To help fight Hamas, its admission coming after a new wave of military strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip which made at least 52 Palestinian deaths.
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 the expeditions of new distribution centers supported by the United States and Israel managed by the Dark 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’Al Jazeera, 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 condemnation, with Israeli troops opening fire On the Palestinians looking for help four times since last week.
Chris Gunness, a former spokesperson for the United Nations Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), told Al Jazeera that the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Gazan Foundation had transformed Gaza into a “human ablator”.
“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 reopen Two aid distribution centers in the Rafah region, in southern 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 Al Jazeera. 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 Al Jazeera 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.
Meanwhile, the head of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, said in a pre-recorded speech that the group had not rejected a List proposal To Gaza, sent by the American special envoy, Steve Witkoff, declaring that he had rather asked for changes to ensure the 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 resume war in Gaza.
