Abu Obeida: Masked Hamas spokesman who became voice of Gaza’s resistance

By Humaira Ahad

At every major turn of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, his voice resonated, profound and unwavering. From October 7, 2023, until his martyrdom, Abu Obeida, the masked spokesman of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, provided battlefield updates, mocked Israel’s claims of invincibility, and portrayed Gaza as “the greatest military school for a people’s resistance.”

On Monday, Hamas confirmed that Abu Obeida was killed earlier this year in an Israeli airstrike. 

The announcement came through a prerecorded message from the group’s new spokesman, who offered no details about the timing or location of the attack. 

He also revealed that Abu Obeida’s real name was Huthaifa Samir al-Kahlout. “We announce with pride the martyrdom of the great leader … Abu Obeida,” he said. “We have inherited his title.”

Israeli media had reported on August 30 that Abu Obeida was killed in an air strike on Gaza City. 

For millions, Abu Obeida was not only the face of Hamas’s armed wing but also the voice that came to embody Palestinian resistance throughout the genocidal war.

A public figure cloaked in secrecy

Abu Obeida’s real identity was never revealed during his lifetime. Like his predecessor, Imad Aqel, killed by Israel in 1993, he kept his face covered with a distinctive red keffiyeh and appeared only in military uniform. The secrecy heightened his symbolic power.

He first came to prominence in 2002, delivering press briefings during the Second Intifada. Following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, he was formally introduced as al-Qassam’s media spokesman and remained its sole public voice ever since.

In 2006, he appeared in a video claiming responsibility for an operation in southern Gaza that killed two Israeli soldiers and resulted in the capture of Gilad Shalit. The attack, carried out in retaliation for an Israeli strike that had killed members of the Abu Ghalia family as they picnicked on a Gaza beach, marked his debut on the international stage.

Over the last 19 years, Abu Obeida became a fixture in al-Qassam’s media strategy. His role intensified after October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched Operation al-Aqsa Flood in retaliation for Israel’s decades-long campaign of death and destruction against the Palestinians. From then on, his short prerecorded video statements became a near-daily occurrence.

He addressed “our steadfast people,” “our Arab and Muslim nations,” and the “free people of the world,” placing Gaza’s fight within a global narrative of liberation. His speeches often mixed military updates with ideological framing, sarcasm, and sharp rebuttals of Israeli claims.

“The plans to occupy Gaza City will cost the enemy’s army in the blood of its soldiers and will increase the chances of capturing new soldiers, God willing,” he said on August 30, 2025.

In July, he described Gaza as “the greatest military school for a people’s resistance against their occupiers in modern history.”

In June, he declared, “Funerals and the corpses of enemy soldiers will become a regular occurrence, God willing, as long as the occupation continues its criminal war against our people.”

Breaking Israel’s false narrative

For many across the world, Abu Obeida’s value lay in his ability to dismantle Israel’s false narratives in real time. While Israeli officials framed the October 7 operation as an intelligence failure, he used it to underscore the fragility of Israel’s military reputation.

“We saw God’s victory manifest as we stormed the enemy’s fortresses on October 7th, which crumbled before us like a spider’s web,” he said in one statement.

On October 8, 2023, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly, he remarked, “You threaten us with any army, Netanyahu, with your soldiers who fled like locusts in front of the Qassam fighters in their hundreds, leaving everything behind.”

His statement exposed the regime’s claims of invincibility in the military field. It exposed the hoax that Israel is one of the most powerful military forces in the world.

“Despite the enemy’s possession of advanced security and military technology, they have failed to confront our fighters on the ground for over 60 hours,” Abu Obeida stated.

Abu Obeida went on to tell the occupying regime that its "era” had “irrevocably ended” with the October 7 operation, “giving way to an era of defeat and setbacks."

Opening the Pandora's box of lies peddled by the regime about the October 7 attack, he said Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel’s Urim base in the Negev Desert, home to Unit 8200, before withdrawing safely.

“The era of selling illusions to the world about the myth of the invincible army, the invulnerable Merkava, and alleged military and intelligence superiority has ended.”

Regional relations

Abu Obeida often used his platform to thank Palestinian supporters. On various occasions, he expressed gratitude to Ansarullah in Yemen.

In March, the Hamas military spokesperson said, "We salute our sincere brothers in Yemen for their honorable stance and direct support for the people in Gaza."

In a viral message after the October 7 operation, Abu Obeida acknowledged Iran’s help with providing funds, weapons, and advanced missiles to the Palestinian resistance.

“First and foremost the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said, “did not withhold from us funds, weapons and other [forms of aid] and helped us in our resistance by supplying us with missiles that pulverized the Zionist strongholds during the attacks and battles we waged against the occupier, and also supplied us with quality anti-tank missiles that crushed the legendary Zionist Merkava.”

As the faceless nom de Guerra became a symbol of resistance and military resilience, his masked image circulated on posters and social media, while his voice became instantly recognizable globally.

Abu Obeida framed the struggle against the Zionist regime as an existential one. On October 17, 2023, he warned Israel that closing al-Aqsa Mosque and unleashing settlers would not go unpunished. “Your era has irrevocably ended,” he told the occupying regime, declaring October 7 the dawn of “an era of defeat and setbacks.”

Abu Obeida was the defiant voice that emerged from Gaza to tell the world that Palestinians were not broken.

“The era of Zionism’s decline has begun,” he once said, “and the curse of the eighth decade will befall them.”

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