Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida has been killed in Gaza.

A Palestinian source had told Al Arabiya earlier in the day that Abu Obeida was killed in an Israeli strike.

Before Katz’s confirmation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel had carried out a strike on Abu Obeida.

“We have struck the Hamas spokesman, the spokesman for this criminal and murderous organization, Abu Obeida,” Netanyahu said, according to a readout of a government meeting.

“I hope he is no longer with us, but I notice that there is no one on the Hamas side to clarify this matter,” the Israeli prime minister added.

The spokesman has for years regularly appeared in the Palestinian militants’ video messages wearing military fatigues and a red keffiyeh scarf to obscure his face.

During nearly 23 months of devastating war in Gaza, the group’s senior leadership has been decimated by Israel, which has vowed to eradicate the militants following their October 7, 2023 attack.

Israel’s killing of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh, the head of its armed wing Mohammed Deif, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar -- accused by Israel of masterminding the October 7 attack -- along with a string of other commanders and political figures, has considerably weakened the movement.

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas 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.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 47 are still being held in Gaza, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,459 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.