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Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced Monday the death of its chief of staff and longtime spokesperson, Hudhayfa al-Kahlout (Abu Obeida), along with a number of its senior commanders, saying they were killed during Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, which it said lasted two years.
In a televised statement, the brigades’ newly appointed military spokesperson said Mohammed Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim), head of Al-Qassam’s General Staff; Raed Saad (Abu Muadh), chief of the military manufacturing division; Hakam Issa (Abu Omar), head of support weapons and combat services; and Mohammed Shabana (Abu Anas), commander of the Rafah Brigade, were also killed.
Abu Obeida, real name Hudhayfa Samir Abdullah al-Kahlout, is the group’s longtime masked spokesperson, known for appearing in military uniform with a red keffiyeh and delivering war updates and resistance messages, especially since Oct. 7, 2023.
Abu Obeida was appointed Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson in 2006 and first appeared publicly on June 25, 2006, after an attack on an Israeli military site near Gaza.
Al-Qassam Brigades said Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas political bureau chief Yahya Sinwar, was on Israel’s wanted list.
Israel said it killed him in an airstrike that targeted him in Khan Younis in May 2025.
He led the group at an extremely difficult moment, succeeding Mohammed Deif (Abu Khaled), after serving as head of the operations division during the Al-Aqsa Flood.
During the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000 to 2005), he carried out several military operations against Israeli sites and settlements before Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
He is described as directly responsible for planning and executing the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 from the Sofa military post east of Rafah in southern Gaza.
He was described as the mastermind behind several high-profile operations against Israel and as having led the development of Al-Qassam’s complex tunnel network.
He is also considered one of the key figures behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israeli forces later carried out a wide military operation in Khan Younis, after which they announced they had killed him.
Mohammed Shabana was the commander of the Rafah Brigade and a member of the military council. He led Al-Qassam’s military media department for years, was a prominent field commander in Rafah, and oversaw attacks against Israeli forces in southern Gaza before Israel killed him in the south of the enclave.
In its statement, Al-Qassam said Shabana contributed in multiple roles, from media to logistics, describing him as "the hero known to the south" and linking him to "qualitative operations," including Al-Wahm al-Mutabaddid, Nadhir al-Infijar, and the capture of Hadar Goldin.
He also took part in planning and executing several operations during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, including the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
He later led a battalion within the Rafah Brigade and was subsequently appointed brigade commander, succeeding Raed al-Attar, whom Israel killed in mid-2014.
Shabana served on Al-Qassam’s general military council until Israel announced it had killed him alongside Mohammed Sinwar in May 2025.
Hakam al-Issa is considered one of Al-Qassam’s prominent military commanders and a founder and pioneer of the group’s military training system.
He helped professionalize Al-Qassam’s training—overseeing field and elite units, importing training know-how from abroad, and building the technical and organizational systems that produced thousands of fighters, while promoting more institutionalized military instruction.
Israel targeted him in June and killed him in an airstrike in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.
In a televised statement, Al-Qassam’s new military spokesperson said al-Issa was known in Lebanon, Syria and other countries before settling in Gaza to continue his path and pass on his expertise to fighters in Palestine.
His nom de guerre was Abu Omar al-Souri. He arrived in Gaza from Syria after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
He held a number of leadership posts, including the training department and the directorate of military institutes and colleges, ending with the combat weapons department.
He founded Al-Qassam’s military academy, established in 2010, and directly supervised its curricula. He also oversaw the development of Al-Qassam’s defensive plans and contributed to building the brigades’ technical and organizational infrastructure.
Israel killed him in an airstrike on Gaza City in June 2025, along with his wife and several of his children.
Al-Qassam said Raed Saad was the commander of the First Gaza Brigade, then moved across different leadership roles and arenas, ending his career by leading the military manufacturing system that produced Al-Qassam’s weapons domestically and by Palestinian hands.
Saad (Abu Muadh) held multiple leadership posts, most notably commander of the Gaza City Brigade, before later heading Al-Qassam’s military manufacturing.
At a later stage, he served as operations chief on the general military council, before those duties were later assigned to Mohammed Sinwar, while Saad remained one of the most important military commanders within the movement’s military and organizational structure.
He survived several assassination attempts over the years, including in 2006, when the Israeli air force targeted a meeting of Al-Qassam’s military council.
According to the account, he headed Al-Qassam’s military manufacturing department, was among the founding figures of the first generation of the brigades, and was the top official overseeing production lines for the Yasin 105 anti-armor projectile.
He also oversaw the development of warheads for rockets and contributed to developing the M75 rocket used to target Tel Aviv.
The information said Israel killed him on Dec. 13, 2025, as part of violations of the ceasefire agreement, after he survived previous assassination attempts.
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