The Palestinian group Hamas has confirmed that its armed wing spokesperson, known as \u2060Abu Obeida, \u200band Mohammed Sinwar, the group\u2019s former leader in Gaza, were killed in Israel\u2019s genocidal war earlier this year.<\/p>\n
In a video statement released on Monday, the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas\u2019s military wing, confirmed the death of its long-time spokesman and announced the appointment of a new masked spokesperson.<\/p>\n
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This marks the first official confirmation of the death of the figure who became the face of the group\u2019s media strategy during the devastating two-year war on Gaza.<\/p>\n
In the statement, the new spokesman revealed the true identity of Abu Obeida for the first time, saying his real name was Hudhayfah Samir Abdullah al-Kahlout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe announce with pride the martyrdom of the great leader \u2026 Abu Obeida,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have inherited his title.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said in May that it had killed Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Three months later, it said Abu Obeida had also been killed.<\/p>\n
Other commanders killed<\/p>\n
Abu Obeida was\u00a0a key Hamas voice in Gaza,<\/a> releasing statements about battlefield updates, ceasefire violations and Israeli captive-for-Palestinian prisoner deals early this year during a short-lived ceasefire, which Israel unilaterally shattered.<\/p>\n His last statement was in early September as Israel began the initial stages of a new military assault on Gaza City,<\/a> declaring the area a combat zone as it destroyed hundreds of residential buildings and Palestinians flee en masse.<\/p>\n The Qassam Brigades, also confirmed the deaths of several other high-ranking commanders, including Mohammed Shabanah, the head of the group\u2019s Rafah Brigade, and two other leaders, Hakam al-Issa, and Raed Saad.<\/p>\n They are among a growing list of Hamas representatives confirmed killed by Israel in the past two years, including many of Hamas\u2019s top military and political leaders, such as top political leader Yahya Sinwar<\/a>; military commander Mohammed Deif<\/a>, one of the founders of the\u00a0Qassam Brigades<\/a> in the 1990s; and political chief Ismail Haniyeh<\/a>, who was assassinated in Iran\u2019s capital, Tehran.<\/p>\n The statement said Mohammed Sinwar had succeeded Deif as the brigades\u2019 chief of staff after Deif\u2019s death, leading the group through what it described as a \u201ccritically difficult phase\u201d before being killed himself.<\/p>\n Ceasefire stance<\/p>\n The new spokesman addressed the current political situation, stating that the group remains committed to the ceasefire that came into effect over two months ago, despite what he termed \u201crepeated Israeli violations\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOur people defend themselves and will not give up their weapons as long as the occupation remains,\u201d he said, rejecting calls for disarmament. \u201cWe will not surrender, even if we have to fight with our fingernails.\u201d<\/p>\n He called on the international community to pressure Israel to adhere to the truce and warned that the group\u2019s right to respond to violations is \u201cguaranteed\u201d.<\/p>\n Since the ceasefire on October 11, at least 414 Palestinians have been killed and 1,145 wounded, while 680 bodies have been recovered, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday.<\/p>\n It added that since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, the total death toll has risen to 71,266, with 171,222 people injured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Palestinian group Hamas has confirmed that its armed wing spokesperson, known as \u2060Abu Obeida, \u200band Mohammed Sinwar,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":478079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70,4527,3497,99,13191,3097,1802,50,4851],"class_list":{"0":"post-478078","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-gaza","9":"tag-hamas","10":"tag-humanitarian-crises","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-israel-palestine-conflict","13":"tag-middle-east","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-palestine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}