Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the fighter group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it, AFP reports.

Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that the group Israel has been working with is part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab.

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”.

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”.

“What did Liberman leak? That security sources activated a clan in Gaza that opposes Hamas? What is bad about that?” Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media earlier this week. “It is only good, it is saving lives of Israeli soldiers.”