TEHRAN – The Zionist regime’s secret plan in Gaza is to arm local militias to weaken Hamas and reshape control from within.

For months, reports have been circulating that the Israeli occupation regime is secretly working with armed militias inside Gaza in an attempt to weaken Hamas.

Investigations, including one conducted recently by Sky News, have documented how occupation forces have been giving these militias weapons, money, fuel, food, and intelligence support. 

The goal is to create rival forces that can militarily defeat Hamas. 

Sky News uncovered four militias working with Israeli occupation forces, some riding in vehicles with Hebrew writing. A member of one group told the outlet that coordination happens through something called the District Coordination Office, a body that includes the regime’s government and members of the Palestinian Authority.

“Ammunition and vehicles are delivered through the Karem Abu Salem crossing after coordination with the Israeli (regime’s) military,” the source said.

The most well-known of these groups is led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a figure linked to drug smuggling operations and the Daesh terrorist group. Several reports have shown how Israeli occupation forces’ aircraft have protected his terrorist operatives during battles with Hamas.

On October 3, clashes broke out between Hamas resistance forces and the Israeli regime-backed militias. During the fight, Israeli warplanes intervened, killing several Hamas members, clear evidence of direct cooperation with the militias.

Can militias succeed?

After two years of genocidal war, Israeli occupation forces, backed by the United States and some other NATO members, tried but failed to defeat Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. 

Al-Qassam has survived through its steadfastness and strong coordination with other resistance groups like al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Daily operations saw complex ambushes against the occupying regime’s troops and military vehicles. 

If some of the world’s most advanced militaries failed to eliminate Hamas, it’s hard to believe a few small militias, even with the Zionist regime’s direct military and intelligence support, would succeed.

The “Yellow Line”

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has outlined a new U.S.-Israeli regime plan to split Gaza in two along the so-called “Yellow Line.”

One side, controlled by Israeli occupation forces, will receive aid, machinery, and money to rebuild. The militias are in areas close to the occupation army’s command centers along this line. 

The other side, still under Hamas, will be cut off, left in ruins, and starved of resources.

The message that the Zionist regime wants to send is simple. Gaza can thrive without Hamas. But to Palestinians, this is not rebuilding. The use of militias in coordination with an occupying regime is blackmail. 

Hamas announced its support for a temporary governing body over Gaza made up of independent Palestinian technocrats and called for early elections. 

Echoes of Lebanon

Lebanon offers a classic case study from the past. In the 1980s and 1990s, Israeli occupation forces reached the presidential palace in Beirut by relying on local militias to fight their battles. 

By the time occupation forces were forced out in 2000 by Hezbollah, those collaborators were hated and hunted. Their cooperation brought shame. It didn’t bring peace or prosperity. A similar scenario is now unfolding in Gaza. 

While the Zionist regime and some Western media accused Hamas of stealing aid during the genocide, later investigations showed that Israeli-backed militias were actually the ones looting the aid amid direct cooperation with the invading regime.

A fragile truce

Under the second phase of Trump’s ceasefire deal, Israeli occupation forces are supposed to withdraw from the “Yellow Line.” If they don’t, the truce could collapse.

The Palestinian resistance movements are now tracking down the militias and those who collaborated with occupation forces during the genocidal war. 

In Gaza, a place where some 2.4 million people have watched family members being slaughtered by Israel, collaborators will find few places to hide. If they manage to evade Hamas and other resistance factions, there are over two million Palestinians seeking accountability for the blood of their loved ones.  

In this decades-long conflict, one truth has remained constant, there is no middle ground. Palestinians see their struggle as a fight for survival. If there is one party despised more than the Zionist regime it is those who collaborate with it. 

As the occupying regime tries once again to reshape Gaza through force and manipulation, it may find, as it did in Lebanon, that no amount of weapons, airstrikes, or proxy militias can win the hearts of the people it seeks to control.