The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that Tel Aviv continued to provide direct support to these militias, including supplying them with weapons, providing support via drones, intelligence information, as well as food and cigarettes, in addition to transporting wounded members of them by air to Israel to receive medical treatment.
The newspaper explained that supporting these groups represents a means for Israel to continue fighting Hamas under the restrictions imposed by the ceasefire agreement, which was reached after the genocide on the sector that Israel began on October 7, 2023 with American support, and which lasted for two years, and resulted in the martyrdom of more than 71,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 171,000, most of whom were children and women.
Israel violates the agreement daily, resulting in the martyrdom of 481 Palestinians and the injury of 1,313. It also prevents the entry of the agreed-upon quantities of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where about 2.4 million Palestinians live in catastrophic conditions.
Among the Israeli-backed militias is one led by Husam al-Astal, who boasted of claiming responsibility for the assassination of the police chief of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud al-Astal (40 years old), in the al-Mawasi area (outside Israeli control).
In an interview with the newspaper, Husam Al-Astal vowed to kill whoever replaces the policeman who was killed less than two weeks ago.
Hamas said at the time that the team that carried out the assassination were "tools of the Israeli occupation," and threatened to punish anyone who cooperates with Israel, saying that "the price of treason is high."
Al-Astal denied receiving any assistance from Israel except for food, but Israeli officials and soldiers reported close coordination and Israeli intervention to protect him and his group when needed, according to the newspaper.
It reported that this militia includes dozens of members stationed in the Israeli-controlled part of Gaza, under the ceasefire agreement, and a video showed militia members using Israeli equipment.
Israel has previously acknowledged its support for militias fighting Hamas, particularly the so-called Popular Forces, a militia founded by Yasser Abu Shabab, who was killed last December in what the militia described as a "family dispute".
The current second phase of the ceasefire agreement stipulates the disarmament of Hamas, which insists on keeping its weapons and proposes "storing or freezing" them, and emphasizes that it is a "resistance movement" against Israel, which the United Nations classifies as the "occupying power."
In 1948, Israel was established on lands occupied by armed Zionist gangs who committed massacres and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Tel Aviv then occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories and refuses to withdraw and allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.
