Leaders of anti-Hamas militias come out against Turkish, Qatari involvement in postwar Gaza

Leaders of militias operating in areas under Israeli control in the Gaza Strip tell Channel 12 that they oppose any involvement of Qatari or Turkish forces in post-war Gaza.

Hussam al-Astal, the leader of a militia in the Khan Younis area, charges that Turkey “supports Hamas and protects Hamas,” and says he considers both Turkey and Qatar to be “war criminals.”

He says, however, that “anyone who helps us against Hamas will be welcomed.”

“Hamas brought destruction upon Israel and upon the Gaza Strip,” al-Astal tells the Israeli news outlet. “During the war, when a gunman hid among the tents, Israel would kill him, and then people would say that Israel murdered children.

“The one responsible for the deaths of women and children in Gaza is Hamas, not Israel,” he asserts.

Rasan al-Dahini, a senior figure in Yasser Abu Shabab’s militia in Rafah, similarly charges that “Turkey is not working for peace; they openly and explicitly support Hamas.”

Responding to claims that the anti-Hamas militias would be forced to flee to Israel for safety once the IDF has fully withdrawn from Gaza, as members of the South Lebanon Army did in 2000 after the IDF left Lebanon, al-Dahini says he is from Rafah and will not leave his home under any circumstances.

He also says that the weapons obtained by Abu Shabab’s clan will not be used against Israel in the future.