Abu Obeida speaks: A warning to Israel, a reckoning for the Arab world

Read — or listen to — Abu Obeida's latest speech in full here.

At a time when Gaza bleeds and its people endure the full weight of a brutal siege, Abu Obeida, the masked spokesman of Al-Qassam Brigades, emerged for the first time in four months on Friday (July 18) with words forged in the fire of resistance and conviction. Speaking on behalf of the armed wing of Hamas, he addressed the enemies of his people and those who have faltered, warning of the bitter cost of betrayal and the unshakable dignity of steadfastness. He warned the “Zionist enemy” of more deadly operations in the future and chastised the Islamic and Arab elites, scholars, and major parties, referring to them as “our adversaries before Almighty God.”

Abu Obeida’s speech — interspersed with battlefield triumphs, historical memory, and spiritual resolve — is a rallying cry to a wounded yet unbroken nation: a people whose resilience has become both a weapon and a witness. It is a call to repentance for collaborators, an affirmation of honor for the faithful, and a reminder that history belongs not to the occupier, but to those who resist, suffer, and persevere with unwavering belief in divine justice. As he invoked the trials and triumphs of the prophets and the early martyrs of Islam, Abu Obeida sought to place Gaza’s struggle — which he referred to as “the greatest military school of people’s resistance confronting its occupiers in modern history” — within a timeless narrative of oppression and eventual deliverance.

What follows is a spiritual and political manifesto shaped by war, pain, and unrelenting hope — a message to the faithful and a warning to the traitorous. It is also a speech that would fit neatly into the repertoire of a revered statesman, yet there are none deserving of that title in a world where most prominent politicians are mired in controversies ranging from paedophilia to financial frauds and mass murder.

Here is Abu Obeida’s speech in full, translated by RNN (you can skip to the captioned video at the bottom of the article):

The Zionist enemy resumed its barbaric, Nazi aggression against our people and families in the Gaza Strip four months ago — after betraying and breaking covenants, turning against the agreement reached with the resistance in January of this year, lying to mediators and to the world, and returning in search of its so-called victory.

For four months, the enemy has continued its sadism against civilians and children, indulging its gangs’ obsession with the systematic destruction of neighborhoods, cities, and civilian residential areas. It persists in this battle and in this brutal war against our people.

Twenty-one months — summarised by the steadfastness of mountains from the fighters and resistance of our people, and the patience of prophets from our great, proud, and generous nation.

Twenty-one months of shame and disgrace have haunted the wicked, occupying usurpers, along with disgraceful abandonment by brothers in blood, Arab identity, and Islam — except those upon whom God has shown mercy among the sincere and the fighters, among the oppressed and overwhelmed peoples, and among the free people of the world who remain in harmony with their humanity.

In recent months, the enemy announced an operation it called Gideon’s Chariots, attempting to project biblical myths in order to confer false sanctity on its racist, Nazi war — a war resembling nothing but the deeds of devils and the practices of filthy, cowardly gangs.

We confronted the Gideon’s Chariots operation — and continue to do so, by the power of God — through a series of Stones of David operations, inspired by God’s victory for His believing servant David (peace be upon him) in his confrontation with the oppressive, tyrannical Goliath. God granted our fighters success and guided their aim by His permission. God was with His soldiers, as they repeated with every strike: “And you did not throw when you threw, but God threw.”

Our fighters — side by side with the fighters and resistance members from our brother factions, especially our brothers in Al-Quds Brigades — are engaged in an unequal confrontation, with unmatched faith, great strength, and unbreakable determination, through the power, grace, and success granted by God.

During these months, we have caused hundreds of casualties among the enemy’s soldiers — killed and wounded, and thousands have suffered from psychological disorders and trauma. The number of enemy soldiers committing suicide continues to rise due to the horror of the filthy and bloody acts they commit, and the magnitude of the resistance they face, surrounded by God’s presence and His soldiers.

Our fighters continue to surprise the enemy with new and varied tactics and methods, having learnt lessons from the longest war and confrontation in our people’s history. They have carried out unique, heroic, and high-level operations. They continue targeting enemy vehicles with shells and explosive devices, engaging in direct combat, sniping at soldiers and officers, blowing up buildings and tunnel openings, setting complex ambushes, and launching raids on enemy forces.

The world witnessed our heroes climbing onto enemy vehicles in Khan Yunis, reaching the occupying soldiers at point-blank range, pursuing the criminal soldier who had mastered the demolition of civilian homes, finishing him off, and seizing his weapon.

Our fighters attempted in recent weeks to carry out several operations to capture Zionist soldiers. Some of these operations nearly succeeded — were it not for the will of God first, and then the enemy’s use of a tactic of mass killing of its own soldiers suspected of being exposed to capture attempts.

Our fighters’ operations have extended from the far north and east of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the neighborhoods of Al-Tuffah, Shuja’iyya, and Al-Zaytoun in Gaza City, reaching all the way to Khan Yunis and Rafah — making Gaza’s resistance the greatest military school of people’s resistance confronting its occupiers in modern history.

O our people and our nation, we in the Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades — after 21 months of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle and the Zionist Nazi war against our people — affirm that our fighters and our brothers in the resistance factions are fully ready to continue a long war of attrition against the occupation forces, regardless of the form of their aggression or their offensive plans. Our fighters have pledged themselves to steadfastness and to inflicting heavy blows on the enemy until the aggression is defeated or they attain martyrdom.

Our fighting is a principled matter and an indisputable right — a sacred religious and national duty. We have no choice but to fight with full strength, determination, and severe might, with the help and support of God. We will fight with the stones of the earth and with what we possess — willpower and believing men who, with little weaponry, perform astonishing miracles by God’s grace.

The strategy and decision of the Al-Qassam leadership at this stage is to ensure deadly blows against enemy soldiers, carry out focused, high-impact operations at point-blank range, and pursue the capture of Zionist soldiers.

If the enemy’s terrorist government chooses to continue the war of extermination, it is at the same time choosing to continue receiving the coffins of its soldiers and officers. Their tanks will not save them, nor will they protect them from the torrents of death forged by faithful hands and cast by the hand of God. They thought their fortresses would protect them from God — but God came to them from where they did not expect and cast terror into their hearts.

We are proud of the steadfastness and heroism of our fighters, and we are deeply aware of the pain and suffering endured by our wounded people and our patient families — whose pain we live with day by day. Our fulfillment of the duty entrusted to us by our Lord, in resisting and fighting this enemy, does not absolve the two-billion-strong ummah from its own duty — a duty it has unfortunately abandoned.

Our enemy is supplied by the most powerful oppressive forces in the world with endless convoys of weapons and ammunition, while the regimes and powers of our own nation look on at their suffering in the land of steadfastness — as they are killed by the tens of thousands, starved, and denied water and medicine.

We say this to history — with all bitterness and pain—and in front of all the sons and daughters of our nation: O leaders of this Islamic and Arab nation, O its elites and major parties, O its scholars — you are our adversaries before Almighty God. You are the adversaries of every orphaned child, every grieving mother, every displaced, homeless, wounded, devastated, and starving person. Your necks are burdened with the blood of tens of thousands of innocents who were betrayed by your silence.

This criminal Nazi enemy would never have committed this genocide before your very eyes and ears had it not been confident of impunity, assured of your silence, and secure in your betrayal. We do not absolve anyone of responsibility for this flowing blood, and we exclude no one who possesses the ability to act — each according to their capacity and influence.

By God, we see the humiliation and contempt with which the enemy treats our nation — its desecration of it, its rampage through it — and our hearts bleed with pain, because we understand the cowardice, weakness, and disgrace of this enemy, and its true size.

And we understand, before all else, the divine truth about it: “Indeed, you are more feared in their hearts than God — if only it were confronted with the dignity of Islam from its people and the lost Arab pride.” But it is weakness, and God is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.

Can a great, mighty, and noble nation not bring food, water, and medicine to the starving and besieged people of Gaza? Can it not stop the bloodshed that is being poured out in terror against our nation and in a greedy effort to break it — to establish a Zionist empire on the land of Arabism and Islam, with its capital as your first Qibla and the site of your Prophet’s (peace be upon him) Night Journey — or perhaps upon its ruins? May the eyes of the cowards never sleep.

We extend our salutations to our dear and blessed people in Yemen — the land of wisdom and faith — to their armed forces, and to the sincere brothers of Ansarallah, who astonished the world with their steadfastness and the truthfulness of their stance with Palestine, Gaza, its people, and its fighters. They imposed an effective front on the enemy and presented a decisive argument against those who remained idle and submissive — among the major Arab and Islamic regimes, powers, and parties — some of whom, sadly, have become fronts for injustice and sedatives for the people and their free youth. Their credibility and grand slogans have been put to the test in the face of their betrayal and failure to support the purest and holiest cause of Arabs and Muslims.

Salutations to all free people in the world who are striving to show solidarity, break the siege, and lift the oppression from our people by all means — disregarding danger, betrayal, and attempts at defamation by the hypocrites of this nation, who think every outcry is aimed at them.

All initiatives and expressions of solidarity from the free people of the world—whether they succeed or are sabotaged under Zionist pressure — are a source of pride and honor for our people. We call for these efforts to escalate and continue, and for the exposure of this enemy by every means and in every arena and field.

We strongly support the stance of the Palestinian resistance delegation in the indirect negotiations with the enemy. We have repeatedly offered in recent months a comprehensive deal in which we would release all of the enemy’s prisoners at once — but the war criminal Netanyahu and his ministers from the Nazi movement have rejected this offer.

It has become clear to us that the government of the criminal Netanyahu has no real interest in the captives because they are soldiers. Their case is not a priority, and the regime has prepared the public to accept the possibility that they are all dead. Still, we have held to preserving their lives as much as possible until now.

We are closely monitoring the ongoing negotiations, and we hope they lead to an agreement and a deal that guarantees an end to the war on our people, a withdrawal of occupation forces, and relief for our families. But if the enemy remains obstinate and withdraws from this round — as it has done in every previous one — then we do not guarantee any return to partial deals or to the “ten prisoners” proposal.

One of the clearest signs of the Zionist failure in confronting the resistance and breaking our people’s will is its resort to vile solutions — war crimes, collective punishment, genocide, and ethnic cleansing — openly supported, unfortunately, by the US administration.

The enemy excels in torturing innocents, openly declares his intention to displace people, boasts about systematic destruction as a military achievement, and presents plans to the world for establishing Nazi concentration camps under false, deceptive humanitarian pretexts.

It is as if this enemy wants to practice experiments that occurred many decades ago, and inflict them upon its enemies with a sadism and criminality that makes Nazism pale in comparison, which necessitates the rejection of these camps by the entire world.

The lie of antisemitism, which our enemies have fed on for decades, will be a farce and a scandal. It is not our people’s fault to pay the price for the psychological complexes of criminal Zionism; rather, the Zionists must know that the reason for nations’ animosity and innate hatred towards them is their actions and crimes against humanity.

Attempts to employ mercenaries and agents for the occupation under Arab names are a sign of failure, and a guaranteed recipe for defeat. These agents will be nothing but a burnt card in the consciousness and dignity of our people and their rejection of betrayal, and what the enemy spends on them will be regret, calamity, and a clear loss for the occupation and its agents, Allah willing.

We call on these agents to repent immediately and return to the embrace of their people before it is too late, when regret will be of no avail. Otherwise, their end will be tragic and a lesson for every traitor and coward. We also express our great thanks and pride in the stances of the families and clans of our noble people, who have disavowed this isolated group of agents who represent no one but themselves.

O sons of our great, patient people, O source of revolution and cradle of men, O you who bid farewell every day to a luminous convoy of martyrs, O brothers of Moses, the one to whom Allah spoke, whom the enemies of Allah harmed, but he only smiled because of you, “No, indeed, my Lord is with me; He will guide me.”

O descendants of Yusuf (Prophet Joseph) the Truthful, when his brothers abandoned him and cast him into the bottom of the well, victory and empowerment came to him. O beloved of Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was besieged in the valley, expelled to the cave, and sought refuge in Uhud, then relief came to him from his Lord: “Allah will suffice you against them.”

O brothers of the family of Yasir, when they were tortured for the sake of Allah, they were given glad tidings: “Patience, O family of Yasir, for your appointed time is Paradise.” Indeed, your steadfastness despite abandonment, your patience, your generosity, and your defiance of oppression and deprivation, are what most enrages your enemies. And this night will surely have an end, and victory comes with patience, and relief with distress, and indeed, with hardship comes ease.

And we kiss the heads of all the elders of our patient, steadfast people, who are victorious by the permission of Allah, and we extend to them the greatest greetings, and we give them the glad tidings from our Lord, the Exalted: “To Allah belongs the command before and after. And on that day, the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah. He grants victory to whom He wills, and He is the Almighty, the Merciful.”

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