JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in Gaza in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. But officials from the U.N. and aid organizations say the military is allowing them to loot food and other supplies from their trucks.

Israeli troops shot and killed at least eight Palestinians near a humanitarian aid distribution center in the Rafah, Gaza, early Saturday.

"Our weapons are not from Israel - they are simple weapons that we collected from the local population," Abu Shabab said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has "operated clans" in Gaza in a video published on social media Thursday after an opposition leader accused him of arming Palestinian militias in order to bolster opposition to Hamas.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke recently of “double standards” in international politics. Germany’s Friedrich Merz questioned Israel’s military goals in Gaza.

Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin man in his 30s, holds sway in eastern Rafah, an area close to a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza.

The IDF killed Kataib al-Mujahideen’s military wing commander, Mahmoud Muhammad Hamid Kuhail, also known as Abu al-Mu'tasim, and a senior leader of the group, As'ad Abu Sharaiya, the head of the terrorist organization, in an airstrike on the Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Saturday.

The company helped design and run a controversial Israeli-backed group that supplanted the work of the United Nations to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip.