As the Gaza ceasefire took effect on Thursday, Israel has reportedly decided not to evacuate militants it had previously armed and supported during the war, leaving many of them vulnerable to reprisals.
Reports from southern Gaza indicate that armed groups once aligned with Israel are now being abandoned. Fighters from the faction led by ISIS-linked commander Yasser Abu Shabab—who had controlled Rafah under the so-called “Popular Forces” operating with Israeli coordination—were seen fleeing the city after being informed that the Israeli military would no longer offer them protection once the ceasefire went into force.
Israeli media reported that a debate had taken place in recent weeks over the fate of these collaborators. Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, reportedly proposed relocating the militants to secure camps inside southern Israel near the Gaza border. The Israeli military, however, opposed the plan, citing political and logistical concerns.
Throughout Thursday, numerous videos circulated from Rafah showing suspected collaborators being rounded up and beaten by Palestinian fighters. Residents described a “day of reckoning” for those accused of working with Israel.
Over the past two years, Israeli forces had built a network of local militias in Gaza, arming and training groups often drawn from clans or families historically opposed to Hamas. These groups, according to both Palestinian and Israeli media reports, were used as proxy administrators in areas under partial Israeli control.
Some, such as Abu Shabab’s “Popular Forces,” were accused of corruption and abuse of power—including hijacking humanitarian aid shipments that were later blamed on Hamas in Western media coverage.
In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly confirmed for the first time that Israel had been arming certain Palestinian factions inside Gaza, arguing that it was a strategy to “weaken Hamas from within.”
Hamas and other resistance factions have fought several skirmishes against these Israeli-backed militias over the past year, including targeted assassinations and street battles. Just last week, Hamas fighters clashed with another clan in Khan Younis accused of helping Israel identify militant positions. The fighting prompted direct Israeli airstrikes in support of the clan and the evacuation of several wounded collaborators to Israeli hospitals—the first such documented intervention on their behalf during the conflict.
The impending Israeli withdrawal from Gaza’s main urban centers, which will revert to Hamas control, has drawn comparisons to Israel’s retreat from southern Lebanon in 2000, when thousands of South Lebanese collaborators and their families fled to Israel to escape reprisals from Hezbollah.