Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida hails Oct. 7 attack and ‘unity of fronts’

On the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the spokesman of the terror group’s military wing, known only as Abu Obeida, delivers a speech praising the attack the group carried out one year ago, and the unity of the fronts opened by Iran-backed proxy groups across the Middle East against Israel over the past 12 months. He further calls for “military, financial and logistical support” as well as media campaigns against Israel.

Abu Obeida also discusses the issue of the hostages still in Gaza, and says that it would be “unreasonable” for Hamas to kill them, but that dozens of them may be held in captivity for a long time and may never be returned.

“The fate of the hostages is tied to the actions of their government,” Abu Obeida says. “The longer [the military operation in Gaza] persists, the greater the risk to the hostages.”

Abu Obeida boasts that October 7 was “the most professional and successful commando operation in the modern era,” and adds that it inflicted a “humiliating defeat” on the IDF. He makes the baseless allegation that it was a “preemptive strike” to avert a major operation planned by Israel against Hamas in Gaza.

The spokesman adds that October 7 came in response to alleged Israeli violations in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, the expansion of settlements, abuses against Palestinian security prisoners, and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

He addresses Hezbollah, saying: “We are confident in your steadfastness and courage in inflicting heavy losses on the forces of the Zionist enemy, as the martyr Hassan Nasrallah promised.”

The terror leader also mentions Maher al-Jazi, the Jordanian citizen who carried out a shooting attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing on September 8 in which three Israeli citizens were killed, saying that he opened an “authentic Jordanian front” in addition to the existing ones.

Abu Obeida lashes at the US for supporting Israel, and claims that Islamist terror operatives in the Gaza Strip, from Hamas and other factions, “persist in their steadfastness and their heroic fighting in every inch of the Strip.” The group’s combat capabilities have been significantly reduced in the Strip.

Commenting on the recent killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, Abu Obeida says that “the policy of assassinations of our leaders is a good outcome, a sign of victory for us, and a source of regret and disappointment for the aggressors.”

“A leader is succeeded by 10, and a fighter by a thousand,” he adds. “This land produces resistance fighters as it produces olives.”