His comments on social media were the first public acknowledgment of Israel’s backing of armed gang groups within Gaza, based around powerful clans or extended families.
Such clans often wield some control in corners of Gaza, and some have had clashes or tensions with Hamas in the past.
Palestinians and aid workers have accused gangs of carrying out criminal attacks and stealing aid from trucks.
An Israeli official said that one group that Netanyahu was referring to was the so-called Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a local clan leader in Gaza's southernmost city, Rafah.
In recent weeks, the Abu Shabab group announced online that its fighters were helping protect shipments to the new, Israeli-backed food distribution centers run by the US-Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Rafah area. But Palestinians say the group has also been involved in attacking and looting aid convoys.
Netanyahu did not specify what support Israel was giving to the clans or their role. His announcement came hours after a political opponent criticized him for arming unofficial groups of Palestinians in Gaza.
Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was "giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons".
Though it was known in southern Gaza throughout the war, the Abu Shabab group emerged publicly in the past month, posting pictures of its armed members, with helmets, flak jackets, and automatic weapons. It declared itself a “nationalist force” protecting aid.
The European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR) think tank describes Abu Shabab as the leader of a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks," AFP said.
The Abu Shabab family recently denounced Yasser as an Israeli "collaborator and a gangster" in a recent statement, saying he and anyone who joined his group “are no longer linked” to the family.
The group’s media office claimed in response to emailed questions from the Associated Press that it operates in Israeli military-controlled areas for a “purely humanitarian” reason.
“We have not received any military or logistical support from any foreign party,” it said.
It said it has “secured the surroundings” of GHF centers in Rafah but was not involved in food distribution.
It rejected accusations that the group had looted aid, calling them “exaggerations” and part of a “smear campaign.” But it also said, “our popular forces led by Yasser Abu Shabab only took the minimum amount of food and water necessary to secure their elements in the field,” without elaborating how, and from whom, they took the aid.
Abu Shabab and around 100 fighters have been active in eastern parts of Rafah and Khan Younis, areas under Israeli army control, according to Nahed Sheheiber, head of the private transportation union in Gaza that provides trucks and drivers for aid groups. He said they used to attack aid trucks driving on a military-designated route leading from the Karm Abou Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing with Israel, the main entry point for aid.
“Our trucks were attacked many times by the Abu Shabab gang and the occupation forces stood idle. They did nothing," Sheheiber said, referring to the Israeli army.
"The one who has looted aid is now the one who protects aid,” he said sarcastically.
An aid worker in Gaza said humanitarian groups tried last year to negotiate with Abu Shabab and other influential families to end their looting of convoys. Though they agreed, they soon reverted to hijacking trucks, the aid worker said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The aid worker said he saw Abu Shabab’s men operating in Israeli-controlled areas near the military-held Morag Corridor in southern Gaza in late May. He said they were wearing new uniforms and carrying what appeared to be new weapons.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the U.N. humanitarian office OCHA for the occupied Palestinian territory, said Thursday that "criminal gangs operating under the watch of Israeli forces near Kerem Shalom would systematically attack and loot aid convoys. .... These gangs have by far been the biggest cause of aid loss in Gaza.”
Israel has displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people and caused a humanitarian crisis that has left the territory on the brink of famine.
Since it started the war in October 2023, Israel has killed over 54,600 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children.
Short link: