Israel sows the seeds for a local uprising against Hamas

Yasser Abu Shabab is a notorious gangster in Gaza. Picture: Supplied

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Could Hamas eventually be toppled by Palestinians rather than by the Israeli military? It is a long shot, but that is the gamble Israel is taking by arming groups in Gaza which are opposed to the terror group.

The revelation that Israel is arming a small Palestinian militia in Southern Gaza which hates Hamas is an attempt to exploit the softening of public support for the terror group among Gazans.

We have already seen sporadic street protests against Hamas by angry unarmed Gazans, but these have been brutally suppressed by the group which has punished those responsible, sometimes with death.

But by arming small groups inside Gaza, Israel is giving them a chance to directly hurt Hamas at the same time as Israeli forces continue to attack the group.

Yet the members of the militia group which Israel has chosen to arm – called the Popular Force – are hardly white knights or angels. Their leader, Abu Shabab, previously ran a gang which looted humanitarian aid. Israel’s support for his small group of fighters, who control a slice of territory in Southern Gaza, is more a case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

Shabab is a Bedouin who is strongly opposed to Hamas, which claims he is a criminal and an Israeli collaborator.

But any form of local uprising against Hamas is helpful for Israel, which has failed to completely destroy the terror group in almost 20 months of fighting.

Israel’s decision to arm the Popular Force has already gotten under the skin of Hamas, which complained that “the Israeli occupation army is arming criminal gangs in the Gaza Strip in a calculated effort to create security and societal chaos”. It is beyond parody that Hamas – which massacred some 1200 Israelis in cold blood on October 7 – now whinges about “criminal gangs” and the creation of “security and societal chaos”.

But even if this small militia group were to somehow gather broad popular support and topple Hamas – which is highly unlikely – it would hardly be qualified to administer the enclave.

So Israel’s support for the group, and any similar groups, within Gaza is aimed at defeating Hamas rather than as part of any succession plan.

The absence of any agreed post-Hamas succession plan in Gaza is undercutting the prospect of peace and a return to normality for the Palestinian population.

Israel and the US have rejected the comprehensive plan put forward by Egypt in which Arab partners work with Israel to progressively rebuild Gaza while it is run by a Palestinian governing committee that does not include Hamas. But the key sticking point is that this plan envisages “working towards empowering the Palestinian Authority to return” and eventually run Gaza.

Israel understandably does not want the corrupt and anti-Israel PA, which currently runs the West Bank, to return to power in Gaza. But Netanyahu has made no constructive suggestions in relation to a post-Hamas Gaza except to say Israeli forces will remain there indefinitely. Donald Trump wants to raze and rebuild Gaza to turn it into a tourist resort and move its 2.1 million people out of the enclave, but all of Gaza’s Arab neighbours have refused to take Palestinian refugees from Gaza.

Talk about a United Nations-sanctioned peacekeeping force has not progressed and would be problematic given the world body’s long-held hostility towards Israel, something which has only intensified since the war in Gaza.

But no plan can be implemented in Gaza until Hamas is defeated.

If Israel can help achieve this by encouraging disaffected Palestinians to rise up against the group that has caused Israelis and Gazans so much misery, it is a gamble worth taking.