Khaberni - Written by Ali Saada:
Portrait
"The masked".. your departure is painful
Ali Saada
He wove it with threads of silk, enveloped with some flavors of simplicity and spontaneity, some folk songs and music, and one of the songs dedicated to him says: "Oh Masked One, Oh father of the Keffiyeh, Oh terror of the Jews.. Oh Abu Ubaida with strong zeal, your statement is gunpowder".
One day, the Kuwaiti journalist Saad Al-Saeedi quoted an elderly man saying that he waits for "Abu Ubaida" every day, and only listens to him while standing.
No information or details suitable for writing a report or text about him, whatever is available about him does not go beyond zero distance in journalistic terms, or in the language of resistance, and all that is published about him are speculations and chatter of social media platforms, needing confirmation and sources.
No one has seen his face, his name is unknown and so is his true identity.
Everyone knows him, but no one really knows him, perhaps he is known only to very few among the close circle of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
Known by nickname and presence and influence, as everyone anticipates his appearance and if there is a delay, many miss him as if he was their favorite star, present yet absent.
Every Palestinian, Arab, and even Israelis themselves wait for his word, which never lacks a statement and a language crafted with stunning care and precision, as the military (media) spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, and although he appears as if holding the "position" of Minister of Information, he is in reality a field commander who is among the top targets on the Israeli assassination lists as being the main element in the psychological warfare imposed by the resistance on the occupation state.
One of the most famous individuals, a fame he did not search for in any way, nor does he care for it. Despite his frequent media appearances, the image of his face covered with a red keffiyeh has become a customary sight on TV screens and social media platforms.
According to Palestinian sources, he was born in Gaza, from the town of Nalia in the district of Gaza, which was occupied in 1948. He lived in Jabalia, northeast of Gaza, and his home was bombed by the occupation multiple times (2008, 2012, 2014, and 2023), which is likely to indicate that he is among the figures targeted in the “bank” of occupation targets.
Palestinian sources say that he obtained a master's degree from the College of the Fundamentals of Religion at the Islamic University, and he was preparing for a Ph.D.
According to some activists, he has suffered about 5 gunshot wounds in his legs and back, and lost his pregnant wife and daughters under the Israeli bombing of Gaza earlier.
His first appearance was between 2002 and 2003 as one of the field officials of "Al-Qassam", and since the beginning, he never appeared unveiled, following the former leader of "Al-Qassam" Imad Aql, who was martyred in 1993 and conducted all his operations wearing a red keffiyeh.
After the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, "Abu Ubaida" was officially appointed the spokesperson for "Al-Qassam", Israel began closely monitoring him after the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006 when "Abu Ubaida" announced the resistance's operation "The Dissipating Illusion" which led to the death of two Israeli soldiers and the capture of Shalit.
The kunya "Abu Ubaida" predates to one of the ten companions of the Prophet who were assured paradise, where "Abu Ubaidah" Amer bin Al-Jarrah became a military leader, and he was one of the close companions of Caliph Umar bin Al-Khattab and earned the title "Ameen al-Ummah" (Trustee of the Nation).
"Abu Ubaida" is a "messenger" and an official spokesperson who conveys the resistance's messages to the Palestinian people and to the world. Unlike most spokespersons, he performs his work in a remarkably fluent Arabic language, with plenty of charisma, which succeeds in transcending the keffiyeh covering his face except for his eyes.
"Abu Ubaida" has turned into a wide-ranging media phenomenon that many anticipate, as he conducted press interviews with Arab and international media, posted video clips, and held press conferences in which he made sure to expose the crimes of the occupation and elaborately discuss the conditions of the resistance.
Even though Israelis, experts in psychological and media wars, have not left "Abu Ubaida" without trying to provoke him into public appearance, Israeli media sites previously published a supposed picture of him, which was denied by sources close to the resistance confirming that the picture was not true and that the aim of publishing the picture was an intelligence motive.
"Al-Qassam" revealed at the time that the Israeli media published the picture at the behest of "Shabak", after it was fabricated and edited as if the person speaking in it was speaking through Al-Aqsa Channel.
The occupation's hatred for him and attempts to minimize his impact on public opinion remain, but he fills the place and time, Arab and international, and the statements that pass through him are more accurate and credible than the reports issued by the occupation, which flounders under a barrage of resistance missiles and the scale of human and media losses and in the narrative it incurs every moment.
Even the Israeli military correspondent Gili Cohen announced that "the Israeli public trusts the statements of the spokesperson of Al-Qassam more than the official Israeli spokespersons."
He typically concludes his speeches with the famous sentence: "And indeed, it is a jihad of victory or martyrdom", taken from the martyr Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam before his martyrdom in the battle of Yaabad forests in 1935. Al-Qassam was an Arab mujahid born in the town of Jableh in the Latakia region of Syria.
After "The Flood of Al-Aqsa", "Abu Ubaida" returned to challenge the Israeli and western false narrative, stating that the number of killed and captured Israeli officers and soldiers is much higher than what Benjamin Netanyahu believes, and they are located in all axes of the Gaza sector. Addressing Netanyahu, he said, "You should count your soldiers well, so do not misjudge."
His famous phrase "God forbid" became well-known when he addressed the Arab leaders saying: "We do not ask you to mobilize your armies and tanks, God forbid, but what we cannot understand and interpret! Have you reached such weakness and incapacity that you cannot move humanitarian aids?"
Remaining pursued by the occupation, which last Sunday announced the assassination of "Abu Ubaida" in a raid in Gaza City on Saturday, while "Hamas" neither confirmed nor denied the news, raising controversy about whether the matter was just an attempt to verify the information or a deliberate strategy to maintain the mystery.
"Abu Ubaida" or "the masked" as many call him, has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance and part of the legend of Gaza, which has broken the myth of Tel Aviv and its invincible army.
People are still eager to hear his eloquent speeches as he is a "soother" of nerves, casting tranquility over the soul by absorbing anxiety and instilling hope in the people, mixing emotional charge and robust language, with a focus on feelings and honesty in every word. In his last speech, he addressed the Arab and Muslim peoples and officials saying "you are our adversaries before God".
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