Yasser Abu Shabab, head of Daesh-affiliated Abu Shabab clan

Israeli collaborator and Daesh-linked leader Yasser Abu Shabab, participating in looting aid and targeting Palestinian civilians, has been reportedly killed in Gaza, according to local media.

Several Israeli outlets reported that he was killed on Thursday, though details regarding who was responsible for his killing or the circumstances surrounding it have not been confirmed.

The incident was said to have taken place in Rafah, in southern Gaza-an area currently under full Israeli control.

Israeli Channel 12 initially reported that Abu Shabab had been taken to Soroka Hospital after being struck, where he was later pronounced dead. The hospital, however, denied receiving him.

Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal described Abu Shabab`s reported killing as a "bad development for Israel," highlighting his role as a local collaborator.

Abu Shabab emerged during the two-year genocidal war as the head of the Popular Forces, looting aid and killing or kidnapping Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters as well as collaborating with Israeli forces.

He was reportedly armed and provided with operational freedom under Israeli military protection.

Abu Shabab`s Popular Forces has faced widespread condemnation from Palestinian factions, who slammed the group as "traitorous" and linked it to both Israel and Daesh (ISIS).

There have been numerous reports of the group engaging in extortion, looting of humanitarian aid and coordinating with the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), which has been accused of overseeing the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians at aid sites.

Hamas said it had obtained proof of "clear coordination between these looting gangs, collaborators with the occupation, and the enemy army," and its security forces had previously vowed to track Abu Shabab down for exacerbating the humanitarian crisis through aid theft and collaboration with Israeli forces.

A 2024 internal UN report also identified the group as a key actor behind "systematic and massive looting" of humanitarian aid convoys in Gaza.

Earlier this year, Israel`s Arabic-language radio station Makan reported that Abu Shabab had boasted in an interview that his militia operated "with ease" in areas under Israeli military control. He was also cited as saying that his group coordinated with the Israeli army, shared information about upcoming operations, and received "external support," remarks he later denied.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously acknowledged that Abu Shabab`s gang was armed by Israel. A Palestinian source told Kan News last month that associates of Abu Shabab had even participated in meetings with senior US officials.

This provides the strongest indication to date of Israel`s escalating tactic to divide the Palestinian society internally, leveraging allied armed groups to combat Hamas while systematically dismantling Gaza`s governance and social infrastructure.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed at least 70,117 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured 170,999 others in the two-year war in Gaza that has reduced much of the coastal sliver to rubble.

Despite a nominal ceasefire agreement reached in October, more than 360 Palestinians have been killed and 900 wounded in nearly 600 reported breaches by Israel. Restrictions on aid and movement through the Rafah crossing also remain in place, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the territiry.