Yasser Abu Shabab, pictured in an image posted on the Popular Forces’ Facebook page. From Popular Forces/Facebook

The leader of an anti-Hamas gang that was armed and backed by Israel has been killed in Gaza, three Israeli sources told CNN.

Yasser Abu Shabab, who led a militia controlling a patch of territory in Rafah in southern Gaza, was killed in what one of the sources described as “internal clashes.”

In a Facebook message to CNN sent from the account of Abu Shabab’s deputy, Ghassan al-Dahini, the militia denied that its leader had been killed.

Two of the Israeli sources said that Israel tried to evacuate Abu Shabab to a hospital in the country’s south before he was pronounced dead.

Israel planned to use Abu Shabab’s militia, which he called the “Popular Forces,” to secure recons

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