Jerusalem : The head of an armed Palestinian faction that opposes Hamas in Gaza has been killed, Israeli media reported on Thursday, in what would be a blow to Israeli efforts to support Gazan clans against the Islamist movement.

Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin tribal leader based in Israeli-held Rafah in southern Gaza, has led the most prominent of several small anti-Hamas groups that emerged in Gaza during the war that began more than two years ago.

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His death would be a boost to Hamas, which has branded him a collaborator and ordered its fighters to kill or capture him.

There was no immediate word about Abu Shabab’s status on the Facebook page of his group, the Pop

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