He was the masked face of Hamas, the voice behind the group’s threats and psychological warfare. But while Abu Obeida was killed in an Israeli airstrike on August 30, a counterterror researcher has told The Times of Israel that the real battle — Hamas’s far-reaching propaganda war — is still very much alive.

Born Hudayfa Samir Abdullah al-Kalhout, Abu Obeida had served as Hamas’s spokesman since 2004, rising to prominence two years later when he announced the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. He became a permanent fixture in Hamas’s public messaging, always appearing in a red-checkered keffiyeh and military uniform, and was a central architect of the group’s propaganda efforts.

As head of Hamas’s military propaganda apparatus, he oversaw a network of some 2,000 operatives — from video editors and combat documenters to media officers — who worked to control the group’s narrative and coordinate between its military wing and its political and media arms.

It was under his direction that cameras were distributed to fighters ahead of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, enabling the group to broadcast footage of its atrocities worldwide. He also managed the release of hostage videos and atrocity clips intended to shock audiences and exert psychological pressure on Israel. Each Hamas brigade and battalion had its own propaganda cell, giving the system a military-style hierarchy and resilience.

The IDF attempted to assassinate him four times before finally succeeding in the Gaza City strike, The Times of Israel has learned, with several analysts placing heavy weight on eliminating the key figure due to his prominence among Hamas supporters.

“Hamas’s image is damaged because it lost one of its most important symbols,”  said Dr. Michael Barak of the International Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT). “Now that this symbol has disappeared, there is a huge vacuum.”

Still, he cautioned against overestimating Abu Obeida’s importance in the big picture of the group’s anti-Israel propaganda.

“We must remember there are Palestinian actors… that are still using social media networks in order to disseminate narratives against Israel,” he noted, adding, “I think the media is exaggerating his importance.”

For Hamas and its allies, propaganda has long been more than a tool — it is a central pillar of warfare.

“There is a very popular slogan among jihadist organizations — that half of jihad is the media,” Barak explained. “If you want to defeat your enemy, you have to win the hearts and minds of the people.”

Since seizing control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has poured resources into building a sophisticated media apparatus, bolstered by Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.

A key player, Barak noted, is Iran’s Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), founded in Tehran in 2007. The network backs more than 210 media outlets in 35 countries, offering funding, training, and a unified media strategy. Its Palestinian branch, launched in 2014, has trained both Hamas operatives and civilians in psychological warfare and online influence.

Following Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, Hamas intensified its propaganda push. A series of coordinated campaigns in both Arabic and English sought to demonize Israel — inflaming regional hostility and shaping Western public opinion.

One telling example came in a Zoom meeting held immediately after the operation, later posted online, where officials from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and IRTVU openly strategized about how to weaponize social media against Israel.

“They explained the importance of training journalists and citizens of Gaza in how to use social media and narratives against Israel,” Barak said. “They also spoke about the importance of recruiting Arab Israelis by tailoring messages to them.”

Hamas’s efforts reach far beyond online campaigns. According to Barak, the terror group’s media office has introduced propaganda education into schools, teaching children both how to withhold sensitive intelligence from Israel and how to help spread anti-Israel narratives. Outside Gaza, Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon have become hotbeds for similar training.

By mobilizing civilians alongside professional operatives, Hamas has built a decentralized propaganda ecosystem — one resilient enough to endure and evolve even without symbolic figures like Abu Obeida.

Barak noted that Hamas’s propaganda relies on recurring themes that resonate far beyond Gaza: portraying Palestinians as victims of an “apartheid regime”; framing the conflict as a David-and-Goliath struggle; and projecting resilience under fire, boasting that, as Barak put it, “no matter how much you bomb us and kill us [the Palestinians], we are strong and we will not surrender.”

“They use special terminology and trigger words to appeal to Western audiences, with terms like ‘apartheid’ and ‘oppression,’” he said. “These narratives existed before October 7, and after the war they only got a boost.”

Hamas has also published materials specifically targeting Western audiences. In the weeks after October 7, it released a multilingual pamphlet titled “Our Narrative… Operation Al Aqsa Flood,” which sought to justify the massacre as a response to Israeli policies, while denying atrocities including rape and the targeting of civilians.

Beyond Hamas’s own channels, Barak said propaganda efforts extend across the region. Operatives in Lebanon, Turkey, and Qatar amplify the group’s messages, while Hezbollah and the Houthis incorporate pro-Hamas narratives into their own media campaigns. In Qatar, caricaturists regularly depict Hamas as heroic and Israel as weak.

Barak stressed that Hamas’s propaganda reach extends far beyond the Middle East.

“In the United States, we see Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have strong links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “This is like a long arm for Hamas on US campuses.”

Hatem Bazian, a founder of both SJP and American Muslims for Palestine, has longstanding ties to Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Barak noted.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim even sent out a call in June 2025 for the “front of resistance” to be expanded on Western campuses.

“Thanks to Qatari money, and Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood support, students in the West managed to build a sophisticated network that disseminates narratives against Israel,” Barak said.

Even as Hamas pours resources into shaping narratives abroad, Israel has sought to strike at the group’s leadership. On Tuesday, the IDF carried out an unprecedented airstrike in Doha, Qatar, targeting a meeting of senior Hamas officials. Among those believed to be present were Khalil al-Hayya, who oversees Hamas’s Gaza units; Zaher Jabarin, head of the group’s West Bank operations; Muhammad Darwish, chairman of Hamas’s Shura Council; Nizar Awadallah; and Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s chief abroad.

Several of these figures have played a direct role in Hamas’s propaganda machine — al-Hayya and Mashaal, for instance, have served as the group’s public faces in interviews with Western outlets such as the BBC.

Asked about what countermeasures could be taken, Barak acknowledged that defeating propaganda entirely may be impossible.

“It’s a very difficult battle. I don’t think it’s possible to defeat it — you can minimize it,” he said.

He prescribed several layers of response: governments should work together on legislation against incitement; law enforcement should hold social media platforms accountable and penalize university actors who promote extremist propaganda; and the public should actively report inciting content and disseminate counter-narratives.

Education, especially in the West, is key to teaching how to recognize fake news and radical campaigns, he added.

“Israel has to invest a lot into this field because Israel abandoned it — and unfortunately, we saw what happened,” Barak said.

While Abu Obeida’s death leaves Hamas without its most recognizable voice, the propaganda networks he helped build — and the allies who sustain them — remain in place.

“I don’t know if they will nominate someone else [to replace Abu Obeida],” Barak said, since it would be putting a target on their back. “Right now, they are relying on external propaganda machines.”