Israel announced on Sunday that it had killed Abu Obeida, the military spokesperson for Hamas.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X that Abu Obeida – a nom de guerre – was assassinated in an air strike on a house in Gaza on Saturday.
There has been no immediate comment from Hamas.
Abu Obeida was one of Hamas’ most prominent public figures and served as the spokesperson for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Palestinian group’s military wing, for nearly two decades.
His profile rose sharply after the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli genocide in Gaza.
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He became known for his masked, pre-recorded speeches in which he delivered battlefield updates, praised Hamas’ military operations and taunted Israel.
Israel has made several attempts to assassinate him over the past 20 years, including at least two during the current war.
The US sanctioned him in April 2024, naming him as Hamas’ “information warfare chief”.
The US Department of the Treasury said he led “the cyber influence department of al-Qassam Brigades” and was involved in “procuring servers and domains in Iran to host the official al-Qassam Brigades website in cooperation with Iranian institutions”.
Military spokesperson
Always appearing incognito with his face covered by a red keffiyeh, little is known about Abu Obeida’s personal life.
Hamas has never revealed his real name, face or background.
In a 2005 interview, he said his family was forcibly expelled by Zionist militias during the 1948 Nakba and resettled in an unnamed village in the Gaza Strip. He implied at the time that he was in his early 20s, suggesting he was born in the early to mid-1980s.
Who is Abu Obeida, Hamas’s military spokesman?
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In 2014, sources within the group said only a few people knew his real identity. “Abu Obeida” is a nom de guerre he adopted during the Second Intifada (2000-2005), when he first emerged publicly.
The name likely references Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, a revered companion of the Prophet Muhammad and a legendary Muslim commander.
His first known appearance as the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades came in 2004. He held a press conference that October during an Israeli ground assault in northern Gaza.
Since then, he has served as the group’s only military spokesperson, delivering speeches and battlefield updates through Hamas’ website and affiliated media platforms. The role was formalised as part of Hamas’s media office in 2004.
The Israeli strike on Gaza City on Saturday, which Israel claims killed Abu Obeida, also left at least seven others dead, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.
Since the genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 63,000 Palestinians and wounded over 150,000, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Over 80 percent of the dead are civilians, including women and children, according to data cited by the Israeli military itself.
