Unmasked: القسام publishes for the first time a rare video of حذيفة الكحلوت "أبو عبيدة"

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), released a new video showing their late spokesman Hudhayfa al-Kahloot, known as "Abu Ubayda," in his first broadcast appearance without the veil that accompanied him throughout his military and media work.

“The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), released a new video of its late spokesman Hudhayfa al-Kahloot, known as "Abu Ubayda," in the first broadcast appearance of him without the veil that accompanied him throughout his military and media work”

Al-Jazeera Net

Al-Kahloot had stood out on social media as "the veiled one," always careful to wear the red keffiyeh that concealed his facial features, cementing his image as a symbol of resistance, secrecy, and security discipline.

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Followers knew him by his voice, tone, and exhortatory speeches without ever seeing his true features.

The video includes both audio and video of Hudhayfa al-Kahloot during an honoring ceremony for fighters of the "Al-Quds Battalion" affiliated with the Qassam Brigades in al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, and it depicts an internal celebratory atmosphere as he speaks to the fighters.

The release formed part of a wider media context by the Qassam Brigades that also included scenes of the Qassam commander, the martyr Ismail Fayez al-Saraj, nicknamed "Abu Mu'adh," commander of the "Al-Quds–al-Nuseirat Battalion" in the Central Brigade, within a video titled "Moons of the Deluge," itself part of the series "Al-Qassam Martyrs in the Battle of the Al-Aqsa Deluge."

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According to observers, the simultaneous release aims to refocus attention on Qassam figures who were martyred during the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, linking their field trajectories to the narrative of the "Al-Aqsa Deluge" and its various stages.

Despite news agendas being occupied with the war between Israel and the United States and with Iran, the clip "Abu Ubayda without a veil" broke into the front pages of engagement on social platforms, with internet users quickly sharing the video and commenting heavily.

“The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), released a new video of its late spokesman Hudhayfa al-Kahloot, known as "Abu Ubayda," in the first broadcast appearance of him without the veil that accompanied him throughout his military and media work”

Al-Jazeera Net

Most interactions focused on the emotional dimension of the "belated recognition" of the man whose name and rhetoric had been tied to the public memory for years, with Tweeters describing the moment as "shocking and painful" because it revealed his features after his passing.

One follower wrote, "The moment of realizing that this person we now see with our own eyes is the one who addressed us from behind the veil, but unfortunately when we saw his face we can no longer hear his voice again… truly a painful moment."

Others posted farewell messages mixing lamentation with affirmation of the path’s continuation, saying, "The body departed and the banner remained; the voice that was stronger than the arsenals of armies left us, leaving behind an unconquerable nation that grows martyrs as the earth grows olives."

Activists said publishing the unmasked footage "completed the man’s biography after his martyrdom," transforming him from an anonymized symbol into a clearly real person with a face, a smile, and expressions, and they argued the footage deepened the emotional connection to him and to the resistance rhetoric among new generations.

Hamas announced on December 29, 2025 that he was martyred during the war of extermination that Israel waged on the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Deluge.

Al-Jazeera Net