December 30, 2025 | 11:36 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has confirmed that their armed wing's spokesperson, known as Abu Obeida, and Mohammed Sinwar, a former leader of the group in Gaza, were killed in Israel's genocidal war earlier this year.
In a video statement released on Monday, December 29, 2025, as reported by Al Jazeera, the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, confirmed the death of their longstanding spokesperson. Hamas announced the appointment of a new masked spokesperson.
This marks the first official confirmation of the deaths of figures who had been the faces of the group's media strategy during the two-year devastating war in Gaza. In the statement, the new spokesperson revealed Abu Obeida's real identity for the first time, stating that his actual name was Hudhayfah Samir Abdullah al-Kahlout.
“We announce with pride the martyrdom of the great leader … Abu Obeida,” he said. “We have inherited his title.”
The Israeli military said in May that they had killed Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Three months later, they claimed that Abu Obeida had also been killed.
Abu Obeida was a key figure of Hamas in Gaza, releasing statements on battlefield developments, ceasefire violations, and the exchange deal between Israel and Palestinian prisoners earlier this year during a short-lived ceasefire unilaterally violated by Israel. His last statement was delivered in early September when Israel initiated a new phase of military aggression on Gaza City, declaring it a combat zone while destroying hundreds of residential buildings and causing mass displacement of Palestinian civilians.
The al-Qassam Brigades also confirmed the deaths of several other high-ranking commanders, including Mohammed Shabanah, the head of the Rafah Brigades of the group, and two other leaders, Hakam al-Issa, and Raed Saad.
They are among the list of Hamas representatives confirmed to have been killed by Israel in the past two years. Among the slain top Hamas officials are the main political leader Yahya Sinwar, military commander Mohammed Deif, one of the founders of the al-Qassam Brigades in the 1990s, and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in the capital of Iran, Tehran.
Who is Abu Obeida?
Reported by Middle East Monitor, information about Abu Obeida's early life is very limited. In 2005, he told a reporter that his family was forcibly expelled by Zionist militias from historical Palestine in 1948 and arrived at an unnamed village in the Gaza Strip. During the same interview, he hinted at being in his early 20s, indicating that he was born in the early to mid-1980s.
In 2014, sources within the group said that few people knew his real identity. His name most likely refers to Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad and a renowned Muslim commander.
On December 29, when Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced his death, the group's new spokesperson described him as a senior leader who headed the media office of the al-Qassam Brigades.
"Today, we mourn Abu Obeida, whose real name was the great leader Huthaifa Samir al-Kahlout, who passed away after two decades of frustrating the enemies," said the spokesperson.
His popularity soared since Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023, and the subsequent Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Abu Obeida is best known for his speeches, where he provided real-time information about the battlefield. He often boasted about Hamas' military achievements and ridiculed Israel, which later attempted to kill him several times.
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