New Leader of Gaza’s Biggest Israeli-Backed Militia Previously Fought for ISIS-Aligned Group

After the killing of Yasser Abu Shabab, the Israeli-backed gang leader who led the largest anti-Hamas militia in Gaza, his deputy, Ghassan al-Duhaini, has taken over as head of the group, officially known as the “Popular Forces.”

According to Al Jazeera, al-Duhaini’s history includes working for the Palestinian Authority and later joining the Army of Islam, or Jaysh al-Islam (not to be confused with a Syrian group with the same name), a Gaza-based Salafi jihadist group with a similar ideology to al-Qaeda that declared its allegiance to ISIS in 2015.

Israeli media has also reported on al-Duhaini’s jihadist past, with The Jerusalem Post saying he was once a “commander in a terrorist group in Gaza that was associated with al-Qaeda.”