HAMAS CONFIRMS DEATH OF ABU OBEIDA, UNVEILS REAL NAME IN SUCCESSION VIDEO

Mon 29 December 2025:

On December 29, 2025, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, announced a new spokesperson and officially acknowledged the killing of the previous one in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City in August.

During a pre-recorded video statement broadcast on Arab outlets, the successor—who has adopted the same nom de guerre, Abu Obeida—disclosed for the first time that his predecessor was Huthaifa Samir al-Kahlout.

This confirmation ends months of speculation after Israel claimed in late August 2025 to have eliminated al-Kahlout, a longtime figure who served as the masked voice of the Brigades for over two decades without ever showing his face publicly until Hamas released an unmasked photo in the announcement.

“We mourn the great leader Huthaifa Samir al-Kahlout, Abu Ibrahim, the head of al-Qassam’s media apparatus, who passed away after two decades of frustrating the enemies and uplifting the hearts of the believers,” said the new Abu Obeida.

“We pay tribute to the masked man in the red keffiyeh, the thunderous voice of the nation, Abu Obeida, who never abandoned his people in the darkest of times and spoke to them from the heart of the battle.”

The new spokesperson also confirmed that Mohammed al-Sinwar, the former commander of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was killed by Israeli forces in May. Other senior military leaders were also confirmed dead, including Raed Saad, who was killed earlier this month.

Kahlout had served as the spokesman for Hamas’s military wing for over 20 years.

Always appearing incognito with his face covered by a red keffiyeh, little was known about Kahlout’s personal life, earning him the title “the masked one” in the Arab world.

He was best known for his televised speeches, in which he provided battlefield updates, boasted about Hamas’s military successes, and taunted Israel.

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One of Hamas’s most prominent figures, he garnered widespread popularity and reverence across the Arabic-speaking world, with his distinctive look often replicated in protests and his name immortalised in songs.

His profile increased dramatically after the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, and the subsequent Israeli war in the Gaza Strip.

Though little is known about his life, Kahlout mentioned in a 2005 interview that his family was forcibly displaced by Zionist militias during the 1948 Nakba and resettled in an unnamed camp in the Gaza Strip. At the time, he suggested he was in his early 20s, implying he was born in the mid-1980s.

Sources within Hamas said only a few people knew his real identity prior to his death.

“Abu Obeida” is a nom de guerre he adopted during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) when he first appeared publicly. The name probably references Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah, a revered companion of the Prophet Muhammad and a legendary military commander.

His first public appearance as the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades was in 2004. He held a press conference that October during an Israeli ground assault in northern Gaza.

From then on, he became the group’s sole military spokesperson, delivering speeches and battlefield updates through Hamas’s official media platforms. His role was formalised within Hamas’s media office in 2004.

Israel made several attempts to assassinate him over the past 20 years, including two since October 2023.

In April 2024, the US sanctioned him as Hamas’s “information warfare chief”, with the US treasury department accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department of al-Qassam Brigades”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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