ABNA24 - Behind the mask and voice that people had come to know for years, Hudhaifa Al-Kahlout, known as “Abu Obaida,” lived away from the spotlight and the personal details that typically shape the public image of prominent figures. The public knew him through his media appearances, while his private life and day-to-day personality remained in a more secluded sphere, known only to his family and those close to him.
On the first anniversary of his martyrdom, his brother, Abdullah Al-Kahlout, tells Al-Ahed News about another side of Abu Obaida’s personality, recounting his positions during the war, the way he interacted with people, and his view of what the Palestinian people endured, culminating in his decision to remain in northern Gaza despite being fully aware of the magnitude of the danger surrounding him.
A Man Who Stayed Away from the Spotlight
According to his brother, Abu Obaida was keen to keep his private life separate from the role through which people came to know him. Fame was not his goal, and his public presence was not about presenting himself so much as it was connected to what he regarded as a cause and a responsibility.
For this reason, many aspects of his personality remained unknown to the public, while what people saw of him was largely confined to the role he had come to embody during years of confrontation.
Yet the war revealed, through his actions and positions, sides of his character that had not been visible in his media appearances - most notably his relationship with people, the way he dealt with danger, and his adherence to his convictions under extraordinarily harsh circumstances.
Close to the People
Abdullah said his brother experienced the war as the people of Gaza experienced it and was not detached from their daily circumstances.
He went hungry as they did, lived under bombardment and fire belts as they did, and endured the siege and the harsh conditions imposed by the war on the residents of northern Gaza.
The suffering of Palestinians was therefore not, for him, a reality he observed from afar, but an experience he lived alongside them. He believed that his place among the people was part of his relationship with them, and that the circumstances they faced could not be separated from his own life.
A View of the War That Went Beyond the Moment
According to his brother, Abu Obaida saw the confrontation as inseparable from the history of the Palestinian Cause, believing that the Palestinian people had not chosen it in a vacuum.
He viewed it within the context of occupation, attacks and the blockade, and remained committed to the Palestinians’ right to defend themselves, their land and their rights.
At the same time, he was aware of the enormous human cost borne by Palestinians. He knew that war leaves behind not only human losses, but also destroys homes, tears families apart and deepens the suffering of an entire society.
Nevertheless, he continued to believe that the scale of the sacrifices did not erase the roots of the issue or alter his conviction that the Palestinian people had the right to defend their rights.
A Sense of Abandonment
Alongside his position on the war, Abu Obaida felt a deep sense of abandonment over what the Palestinians were enduring.
This feeling was not limited to the positions of regimes and rulers; it was also connected to his view of the role of the wider Arab and Muslim nation as a whole.
He believed that the nation possessed the strength, capabilities and resources to play a greater role in confronting what was happening in Palestine. He also believed that assuming such a role would not be limited to stopping the aggression against Gaza, but could lead to thwarting the occupation’s objectives and inflicting a genuine defeat on its project.
When He Knew the Danger Was Drawing Near
Abu Obaida was aware that the war was entering an increasingly dangerous phase. His brother reveals that he felt his death was approaching and expected Gaza City to witness a large-scale invasion and a major escalation. Despite this, he remained determined to stay in northern Gaza.
It was not a decision he made because he failed to understand the extent of the danger. Rather, according to his brother, he believed that his place was among his people. The possibility of an invasion, or his sense that the end was drawing near, did not compel him to leave the area. He knew that staying carried great danger, but he did not allow fear to determine his decision.
One Shared Fate
In this context, Abu Obaida's decision to remain can be seen as an extension of the way he dealt with people and the war. Having experienced hunger, siege and bombardment alongside them, he also chose to remain in the place where his people remained, rather than seek a fate separate from theirs.
According to his brother, he did not see himself as detached from the society to which he belonged. He therefore remained close to its reality even when living conditions became unbearably harsh.
The Human Being Behind the Mask
Abdullah Al-Kahlout’s testimony offers a different portrait of Abu Obaida - a portrait that does not reduce him to his voice or media appearances, but instead brings us closer to the person who lived behind that image.
He was a man who guarded his privacy and lived away from the spotlight, yet was deeply connected to the people and the cause in which he believed. When the war came, he did not separate his life from the reality experienced by his people. He lived through their circumstances and shared their hunger, fear, siege and bombardment. And when he felt that his death might be approaching, he remained in northern Gaza.
Ultimately, his brother’s testimony does not define Abu Obaida solely by the moment of his death, but by the choices that preceded it: the privacy he chose to preserve, the convictions to which he remained committed, his bond with the people that he would not allow the war to sever, and his decision to stay even when he knew that danger was drawing near.
This is the image his brother recalls today: a man whom people knew from behind a mask, while his family knew him as a person with a private life, his own character and convictions - and who, under the harshest circumstances, chose not to separate his fate from that of his people.
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