Despite elimination of Abu Obaida: Hamas’ Unit for Psychological Warfare continues operating

The death of Hamas’ propaganda czar “Abu Obaida," who in recent years had become one of the most popular terrorists in the world, has shed light on the enormous propaganda machine he built – one that continues to operate despite his elimination by an Israeli air strike last week.

A report Army Radio published on Tuesday said that Hudhaifa al-Kahlout, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Obaida, led an enormous network of around 1,500 terrorists, who are conducting the group’s campaign of psychological warfare.

Their goals include incitement to terrorism, weakening of the Israeli society’s resolve to continue the fight, as well as influencing worldwide public opinion against Israel, making the unit one of Hamas’ most dangerous weapons.

According to Army Radio’s military correspondent, Doron Kadosh, the unit’s 1,500 operatives make it more than twice the size of similar IDF units, like the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

For example, Hamas employs around 1,000 terrorists whose job it is to film and document the fighting, compared to around 40 Israeli soldiers with the same task.

“Of course, these are fundamentally different entities – but the contrast highlights just how massively Hamas has invested in propaganda, documentation, dissemination, and psychological influence. It’s not a side effort – it’s a strategic priority for the organization,” noted Kadosh.

The IDF and the Shin Bet officially confirmed on Sunday that Kahlout had indeed been killed. According to local reports cited by the BBC, he had been hiding in a building in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood, in an apartment used as a dentist's clinic.

The Israeli strikes hit the second and third floors of the building from two directions, killing Kahlout and several other people. According to witness reports, hundreds of thousands of dollar bills were seen flying in the air after the strikes, some of which was taken by locals but later recovered by Hamas terrorists.

Kahlout, said the IDF, “headed Hamas’ Military Wing propaganda apparatus and psychological terror operations, and was the spokesman of Hamas’ military wing… Obaidah was one of the last remaining senior terrorists of Hamas’ Military Wing from before October 7, 2023.”

He “oversaw spokesmanship across Hamas’ brigades and battalions, coordinated between the organization's political spokespeople and its military wing, and was a senior figure in determining propaganda policy,” the military added, noting he was “the public face of the Hamas terrorist organization” and “disseminated Hamas' propaganda to promote terrorist activity, seeking to influence the Gazan public and Hamas supporters across the Middle East and the world.”

His unit was directly responsible for spreading the horror footage filmed by Hamas terrorists during the invasion and massacre, and for “distributing incitement videos across the Arab world and among the Palestinian public, encouraging them to commit similar acts of terrorism.”

In addition, the unit was also behind the release of psychological terror videos showing the Israeli hostages, scripting their statements that aimed at dividing Israeli society and inciting opposition to the war.

The report explained that every Hamas unit has its “operational documenters,” with senior “information officers” reporting directly to the unit’s leadership.

The documenters are trained in filming and equipped with GoPro cameras, protective gear, backpacks, and backup batteries purchased as part of an orderly, expanding procurement plan in the past years.

Kahlout significantly expanded the propaganda arm over the past decade, from some 400 terrorists during the 2014 war, nicknamed “Operation Protective Edge,” to today’s scale.

Every larger unit, like battalions and brigades, has its own propaganda center, where the raw footage captured by the documenters is made into the polished propaganda videos Hamas disseminates around the world.

The centers are often hidden in schools and hospitals, requiring only a laptop and internet connection. This makes locating and targeting them extremely hard.

The videos are often filmed and cut in a way that allows the terrorists to suggest and falsely claim large Israeli casualties.

Highlighting the propaganda unit’s importance, Kadosh noted that the documenters operate under the motto, “The action matters less than the documentation.”

In another branch of the unit, around 400 terrorists work out of centralized command centers to monitor Israeli media, trying to assess the public’s mood to suggest new and tailored influence campaigns. Kahlout reportedly spoke Hebrew at a proficient level.

The report also noted that no major decision was taken by Hamas’ leadership without input from Kahlout, who supplied a detailed battle protocol and accompanying influence strategy approved by him.

“Hamas knows its power lies in asymmetry and narrative control – this is one of its most effective weapons,” security officials told Kadosh.

Kahlout was intimately connected to the hostage file within Hamas. He often kept hostages close to himself to avoid Israeli air strikes against him, and he personally oversaw the planning and production of the hostage videos, which were often released at strategic times to incite or hurt Israelis as much as possible.

He was also responsible for Hamas’ cynical hostage release “ceremonies,” personally coming up with the twisted ideas of presenting the hostages with “gift bags” and “release certificates.”

In the most recent example of his unit’s importance for Hamas, Kahlout devised and orchestrated the current influence campaign designed to pressure the Israeli government into cancelling the operation to take control of Gaza City.

Israeli intelligence had to interrogate over 30 people from Kahlout’s inner circle to have enough intelligence pointing to his location, which finally, enabled his targeted killing last week.

Despite managing to kill Kahlout after three unsuccessful attempts, and eliminating some 200 operatives from his unit, some 1,000 terrorists are continuing his work.

Summing up his report, Kadosh wrote, “Hamas has invested heavily in building a highly professional, decentralized, and deeply embedded propaganda infrastructure. It views narrative control and psychological operations as central pillars of its warfare – not merely support functions.”