Doha: The Palestinian group Hamas has confirmed that its armed wing spokesperson, Abu Obeida, and then Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar were killed Israel’s genocidal war earlier this year.
The Qassam Brigades made the announcement Monday. It also confirmed the deaths of Mohammed Shabanah, the head of the group’s Rafah Brigade, and two other leaders, Hakam al-Issi, and Raed Saad.
The Israeli military said in May that it had killed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Three months later, it said it had also killed Abu Obeida.
Hamas confirmed that Abu Obaida’s real name was Huthaifa al-Kahlout.
Abu Obeida’s last statement was in early September as Israel began the initial stages of a new military assault on Gaza City, declaring the area a combat zone as it destroyed hundreds of residential buildings and Palestinians flee en masse.
Abu Obeida was a key Hamas voice in Gaza, 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
Sinwar and Abu Obeida are the latest Hamas representatives confirmed killed by Israel in the past two years, including many of Hamas’s top military and political leaders, such as top political leader Yahya Sinwar; military commander Mohammed Deif, one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s; and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran
