Former jailed terrorist founds latest Gaza militia aiming to fight against Hamas in Khan Younis - report
In recent days, a former Israeli prisoner and former senior officer in the Palestinian police, named Shawqi Abu Nasira, announced the formation of a new militia to fight Hamas in the eastern Khan Younis area.
Abu Nasira told the U.S.-based news site Jusoor News that establishing the militia “was not a political choice – but a necessity to protect the residents.”
He added that his decision came “after a series of crimes committed by Hamas, foremost among them the assassination of three intelligence officers of the Palestinian Authority. At that moment I understood that anyone who criticizes Hamas or opposes it becomes a target, and that my fate would be like theirs if I don’t take up arms.”
Abu Nasira claimed that Hamas has committed widespread crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, “including repression, accusations of treason, and extortion,” and refuses any political solution because its decisions are directed by Iran.
An interview by @JusoorNews with new anti-Hamas militia leader Major General Shawqi Abu Nusaira (a retired PA police official and former prisoner) revealed that he has launched an armed group to oppose Hamas in Gaza.
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) November 24, 2025
Nusaira frames this as a defensive necessity after what he… pic.twitter.com/Fag6DePNzv
He also said that “Hamas lives off protection money. Whatever the citizen has, it takes in the name of the resistance, while still rejecting any political solution because they do not decide for themselves. Turkey, Qatar, and Iran are worse for our cause than the occupation itself.”
Abu Nasira spent 16 years in an Israeli prison for carrying out attacks and attempted to escape by digging a tunnel out of Nafha Prison – but was caught after eight days. After being released in 2003, he worked for four years in the Palestinian Authority security forces in Gaza, until Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007 in what he calls “the black coup.”
After he criticized Hamas over the events of Oct. 7, Abu Nasira’s photo appeared on a well-known Hamas-affiliated page called “Catch the Collaborator,” which encourages violence against people accused of collaborating with Israel. Following the post, he received direct threats from senior Hamas members – to which he responded that “he would be the one to catch them.”
“That was the moment I declared war against them,” he said. Today, he commands a militia with more than 30 fighters, who, according to him, left their homes and families “after suffering from Hamas’s repression and extortion.”
Abu Nasira claimed that “Hamas is essentially finished,” and what remains are “weak pockets hiding in hospitals.” He said he recently saw Hamas fighters and their families living inside wards of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, while people needing treatment were left in the corridors.
According to him, because of the war, Hamas has begun recruiting people with no experience or skills to prevent the organization from collapsing. Abu Nasira told Jusoor News that he began establishing “a civilian camp that includes a hospital and a school, to draw people out of Hamas’s control,” and that he even left his wife and children to do so.
With this move, he joins four other militias operating in the “Yellow Line” areas against Hamas: the militias of Yasser Abu Shabab, Husam al-Astal, Ashraf al-Mansi, and Rami Khalas.
Want to help more people find our reporting from Israel? Leave a quick Google review of our website here.
Kan.org.il is the Hebrew news website of the The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation
You might also like to read this:
