A New Scandal for Mohammed bin Zayed: UAE–Israel’s Proxy War inside Gaza
An exclusive investigation by Dark Box reveals a deeply troubling development: a coordinated campaign by the United Arab Emirates and Israel to sponsor and finance four armed gangs inside the Gaza Strip. Their objective: initiate internal conflict against Hamas and engineer a new leadership structure favorable to UAE‑Israeli interests.
The evidence shows that the UAE, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, has developed training and logistical infrastructure using Yemeni territory as a staging base, channeling funds, weapons and personnel into Gaza. Among the leading gangs are four names: Yasser Abu Shabab, Husam Al‑Astal, Rami Helles, and Ashraf Al‑Mansi.
Yasser Abu Shabab is already well‑documented in international media as the head of the “Popular Forces” militia in southeastern Gaza, backed by Israel. He commands a territory in Rafah and is reported to operate with Israeli approval to control aid routes and suppress civilian access.
Husam Al‑Astal, described in leaked Emirati‑Israeli files as a “fugitive murderer, drug‑dealer, fraudster and long‑time collaborator,” leads a new gang based in Khan Younis designated by the code name “Cell Z‑4”. Documents show he underwent training at a camp in Yemen’s Socotra archipelago under an Emirati cover operation.
Rami Helles and Ashraf Al‑Mansi are other actors in this network, tasked with controlling supply routes in Gaza City and Deir al‑Balah, coordinating with the others to enforce internal divisions, hijack humanitarian aid, and open space for UAE‑approved leadership transitions.
Leaked financial spreadsheets, part of “Project Aswan,” show budgets allocated for Yemeni training camps, arms shipping via Sudan’s eastern border, and the installation of dual‑use civilian/logistic infrastructure inside Gaza. These documents were obtained from an intelligence leak involving a UAE‑based logistics firm.
The Israeli dimension is clearer: investigations by Sky News and Le Monde show that the Israeli army created and directly supervised the Abu Shabab gang. US intelligence cables obtained by The Guardian confirm coordination between IDF and clan‑militia operations.
The UAE’s motive lies in undermining the established Palestinian leadership model and installing a new body loyal to Abu Dhabi and Israel—possibly under the control of Mohammad Dahlan, whose candidacy the UAE has long supported.‑ The rise of these gangs, war‑lords rather than lecturers, signals a departure from popular Palestinian resistance toward externally engineered proxies.
The implications are alarming: by funding and arming these gangs, the UAE and Israel are fuelling civil war inside Gaza, fracturing the enclave, weakening humanitarian access, and turning the population into collateral in a political engineering project.
Hamas and Palestinian civil society are increasingly seeing this as a deliberate assault on their self‑governance rights. Aid workers report that convoys passing through Abu Shabab territory are regularly hijacked, redirected or blocked. The United Nations has described the environment around the Kerem Shalom crossing as a “law‑free zone ruled by criminal militias.”
For Mohammed bin Zayed and his Israeli counterparts, the model is clear: indirect regime change, hidden proxies, plausible deniability. But history warns that such systems often spin out of control. Just as the U.S. once backed militias in Afghanistan only to see them turn on their patron, Gaza’s militias might one day turn to challenge Israel and the UAE themselves.
In the meantime, the people of Gaza—already trapped under siege and bombardment—face a dual war: one against external attack, the other within. And the international community remains largely mute.
This scandal demands greater scrutiny. Dark Box will keep publishing name by name, leak by leak—so that those engineering this proxy war in Gaza cannot hide behind euphemisms and cover stories.
