Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida killed in air strike, Israel claims

Militant group meanwhile confirms death of military chief Mohammed Sinwar in Israeli attack

Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas's military wing. AFP

Israel's Defence Minister said on Sunday the army had killed Abu Obeida, spokesman for the armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

"Hamas terror spokesperson Abu Obeida was eliminated in Gaza," Israel Katz said in a post on X, congratulating Israeli security forces "for the flawless execution".

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed Abu Obeida had been targeted in Saturday's strike but stopped short of confirming his death.

The Israeli army said in a separate statement it had "eliminated" Abu Obeida, who led "Hamas’s military wing propaganda apparatus and psychological terror operations, and was the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing".

It added that the foundations of the operation had been laid by gathering intelligence to identify his hiding place.

The army had said it struck a key Hamas operative in Gaza city in the north of the strip, fuelling reports that it may be the masked spokesman who has become a symbol of the armed group since the beginning of the war in Gaza. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

In a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu had expressed his hope that Abu Obeida had been killed. "We still don't know the final result. I hope he is no longer with us, but I notice that there is no one to address this question on the Hamas side. So, hours and days will surely say what they will say," he said.

Hamas has, meanwhile, confirmed the death of Mohammed Sinwar, its presumed leader in Gaza, more than three months after Israel said it had killed him in an air strike.

Pictures released by the Palestinian armed group showed him alongside other political and military leaders described as "martyrs of the military council".

Mohammed Sinwar was the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas chief, who co-masterminded the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and whom Israel had killed in combat a year later.

He reportedly led the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades' military council after the death of commander Mohammed Deif.

Israel said it had identified Mohammed Sinwar's body in June in a tunnel in Khan Younis, central Gaza. The military said it had "eliminated" him on May 13.

Born in Khan Younis in 1975, Mohammed Sinwar joined Hamas as a teenager and was arrested in 1991 for suspected involvement in terrorism. He was also jailed by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah during the 1990s.

After the killing of Mohammed Deif in July last year, he took charge of the group’s armed wing. After his elder brother's death, he became de facto leader of Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas's Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been confirmed dead. Reuters

The war in Gaza began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 251 taken hostage. Twenty of the remaining 48 hostages are believed to still be alive.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 63,000 people, mostly civilians, Gaza health officials say, and it has plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis and left much of it in ruins.

Since the war began, Israel has carried out a series of assassinations targeting senior leaders and commanders of Hamas and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, significantly weakening both groups.

Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in the past two years, killing many of its top brass, including former leader Hassan Nasrallah and 5,000 of its fighters, and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israel has also been targeting Yemen's rebels, who have been launching drone and missile attacks on Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

An Israeli air strike killed the prime minister of the Houthi rebel-controlled government in Yemen's capital Sanaa, the Houthis said Saturday. He was the most senior Houthi official killed in the Israeli-US campaign against the Iranian-backed rebels.

Ahmed Ghaleb Al Rahwi was killed in Thursday's strike in Sanaa along with a number of ministers, the rebels said.

The prime minister was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year”, the Houthis said.

On Sunday, the leader of the Houthi rebels vowed to intensify attacks on Israel, after Mr Al Rahwi's death.

"Our military approach to targeting the Israeli enemy, whether with missiles, drones, or a naval blockade, is continuous, steady and escalating," the Iran-backed group's leader Abdul-Malik Al Houthi said in a televised speech. "Our path to support the Palestinian people continues in all areas with all our capabilities."

Hans Grundberg, UN special envoy for Yemen, said he was "Following with deep concern the recent escalation in Yemen, where areas under Houthi control have come under Israeli attack following the Houthis' own strikes against Israel," a UN statement said.

Mr Grundberg reiterated that Yemen cannot afford to become a battleground for a wider geopolitical conflict and stressed that these attacks must stop immediately.

He is "particularly alarmed by reports of civilian deaths and injuries resulting from the Israeli strikes, as well as the reported killing and wounding of several senior Houthi officials and political interlocutors," the statement added.

On Sunday, the Houthis raided offices of the UN food and children's agencies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at least one UN employee, officials said.

Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme (WFP), told AP that security forces raided the agencies’ offices in the Houthi-controlled capital on Sunday morning.

Also raided were Unicef offices, according to a UN official and a Houthi official.

Ammar Ammar, a spokesman for Unicef, said there was “an ongoing situation” related to their offices in Sanaa, without providing further details.

The UN official said contacts with several other WFP and Unicef staffers were lost and that they had probably also been detained.

The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the UN and other international organisations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.

They have detained dozens of UN staff workers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-closed US embassy in Sanaa.

The UN suspended its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the rebels detained eight UN staffers in January.