The notorious spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing in the Gaza Strip was said to have been the target of an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, the results of which were not immediately clear but which left Israeli officials feeling cautiously optimistic.
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said in a statement on Saturday evening that they had carried out an airstrike on a senior Hamas operative in the Gaza City area, in the northern Gaza Strip.
While the statement did not provide the identity of the targeted terror operative, multiple Hebrew media outlets reported that it was the longtime Hamas spokesman, Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, who is more widely known by his nom de guerre Abu Obeida.
Abu Obeida is always masked in his statements to the media, and he is viewed as something of a symbol in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in the Arab world. During the current war, the IDF published an estimation of what his face looks like.
Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida exposed as Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, in footage released by the IDF in October 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)
While his fate after the strike was not immediately known, unnamed Israeli security sources cited by Hebrew media expressed cautious optimism about the outcome of the strike.
“There is optimism, we have cautiously assessed that the direction is positive,” one security source told Channel 12, while another told the Kan public broadaster that the outcome was “looking good.”
Reports in Gaza indicated that some 11 people, including children, were killed in the strike on the apartment building that the senior Hamas operative was believed to have been sheltering in.
The IDF insisted that precautions were taken to minimize civilian harm, including precision munitions and aerial surveillance, along with additional intelligence.
Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Hamas military wing, speaks during a memorial in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 31, 2017. (AFP/ Said Khatib/ File)
Hamas swiftly shot down reports of Abu Obeida’s death and published a statement warning that the rumors were nothing more than an attempt at “psychological warfare,” Jordanian news outlet Roya News reported.
According to the news outlet, Hamas warned Palestinians against spreading rumors of his death, as it would assist Israel in its ‘deliberate’ psychological campaign and serve to undermine public trust and unity.
Abu Obeida has been the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades since 2004. He rose to prominence in 2006 as he announced the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
He has since been the face of the more high-profile statements and psychological warfare by the terror group.
Abu Obeida’s last statement was issued on Friday evening, warning Israel that its planned offensive to conquer Gaza City would subject hostages in the area to the “same risks” as the terror group’s fighters.
“We will take care of the prisoners the best we can, and they will be with our fighters in the combat and confrontation zones, subjected to the same risks and the same living conditions,” he said.
His last video statement was aired some two weeks ago, in which he attempted to pressure Israel to agree to a hostage-ceasefire deal accepted by the terror group.
