RIYADH: Israeli media claimed an airstrike has killed the spokesman of Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida.
Israeli reports said Saturday’s strike targeted a key Hamas operative, with some senior Israeli officials claiming it was Abu Obeida.
A Palestinian source told Al Arabiya on Sunday that the strike, reportedly on Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, hit an apartment where Abu Obeida was staying.
All residents of that apartment were also killed in the strike, the source said.
The source added that members of Abu Obeida’s family and Hamas’s armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, “confirmed his death after examining the body.”
There was no Hamas comment on Israeli claims about killing Abu Obeida so far. But the Palestinian militant group warned against spreading rumors regarding the killing of its members.
It said the rumors circulated by Israel were part of a “psychological war aimed at destabilizing the internal front.”
Abu Obeida has been a representative for the Qassam Brigades in media. He appeared in recordings published by Hamas’s armed wing by wrapping a red Palestinian keffiyeh around his head to hide his identity.
He spoke in a concise and eloquent Arabic providing battleground updates since the ongoing Hamas-Israel war erupted in 2023.
Agencies