The killing of Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab , confirmed by his Popular Forces group and by Israeli media, is the final chapter of a man who tried to present himself – with Israeli support – as an alternative to Hamas, but who was widely derided by Palestinians as a collaborator.

In his early 30s and from southern Gaza’s Bedouin Tarabin tribe, Abu Shabab was largely unknown in the Palestinian enclave until his emergence at the head of a militia last year. Initially called the “Anti-Terror Service”, by May this year it had popularised itself as the “Popular Forces”, a well-armed group of at least 100 fighters operating in Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza.

The group operated somewhere between a criminal gang and an Israeli proxy force, but presented itself as a nationalist Pale

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