Urgent questions are being raised over a patchwork of armed groups that have emerged to fight Hamas in Gaza over recent months.

They include groups based around family clans, criminal gangs and new militia – some of which are backed by Israel, as its prime minister recently admitted.

 

Elements within the Palestinian Authority - which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and is a political rival to Hamas - are also believed to be covertly sending support.

But these militia - each operating in its own local area inside the 53% of Gaza's territory currently controlled by Israeli forces - have not been officially included in US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for an International Stabilisation Force and a newly-trained Palestinian police force to secure Gaza in the next stage of the deal.

 

One of the largest militia is headed by Yasser Abu Shabab, whose Popular Forces operate near the southern city of Rafah.

In one recent social media video, his deputy talks about working in co-ordination with the Board of Peace - the international body to be tasked with running Gaza under the plan.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgmgjx1jego

 

One of the largest militia, the Popular Forces, operates near the southern city of Rafah

 

Hossam al-Astal, who leads a militia called the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force near the southern city of Khan Younis, told Israeli media this week that "US representatives" had confirmed his group would have a role in Gaza's future police force. A US official said they had nothing to announce at this time.

 

Hossam al-Astal once worked for the Palestinian Authority. His group is small - maybe tens of fighters - but is increasingly confident, and runs a well-supplied tent city near Khan Younis.

"Let's say it's not the right time for me to answer this question," Astal smiled when I asked if Israel was supplying him. "But we co-ordinate with the Israeli side to bring in food, weapons, everything."

 

"We are the next day for the new Gaza," he told me. "We have no problem co-operating with the Palestinian Authority, with the Americans, with anyone who aligns with us. We are the alternative to Hamas."

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgmgjx1jego