Netanyahu Taunts Hamas Over Reported Death of Spokesman Abu Ubaida

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a pointed jab at Hamas on Sunday during a government meeting held at a secure alternative site, addressing the reported elimination of Abu Ubeida, Hamas’s military spokesman.

According to Kan News reporter Michael Shemesh, Netanyahu remarked that the reason Hamas has not yet issued an official statement on Abu Ubeida’s fate is simple: “Apparently there is no one left to speak for them.”

Israel is still waiting for concrete confirmation of Abu Ubeida’s death. The Hamas figure, who became the masked voice of the terror group in recent years, had long managed to evade Israeli assassination attempts.

The relocation of Sunday’s cabinet meeting came after a string of Israeli strikes in Gaza and Yemen that targeted senior terrorist officials.

Prime Minister Netanyahu. (Photo: Omer Meiron/GPO)

A Palestinian source told Saudi outlet Al-Arabiya that Abu Ubaida was indeed killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday in Gaza City, when his hideout apartment was struck by an IAF fighter jet. According to the report, his family and senior Hamas commanders verified his death after identifying the body, though Hamas has yet to release any official confirmation.

The IDF and Shin Bet issued a joint statement following the strike: “A senior Hamas operative was targeted by an Air Force aircraft in Gaza City. The strike was conducted under the guidance of Southern Command and Military Intelligence.”

In past briefings, Israel revealed that Abu Ubaida was actually Hudhayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlut, who reinvented himself as Hamas’s masked mouthpiece. The IDF accused him of hiding behind a red keffiyeh and false identity — just as Hamas routinely hides behind civilian sites to launch rockets at Israel.

“Hamas leaders love to hide,” the IDF statement said. “They hide in tunnels, behind women and children, and behind masks and shadows.”

Hamas condemned the latest wave of Israeli strikes in Gaza, calling them a “declared plan to destroy Gaza City and forcibly displace its residents—a war crime openly admitted by Israel’s leaders in front of the world.”

The alleged death of Abu Ubaida, if confirmed, would mark a major symbolic blow to Hamas. For years, he was the most visible voice of the terror group, broadcasting threats and propaganda while remaining in the shadows.