The Return of Islamic Rhetoric: Hamas and Conflict Framing in the Gaza War 2023-2024

Abstract

The speeches of Abū 'Ubayda, the spokesperson for Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, are one of the key aspects of the 2023–2024 war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Abū 'Ubayda came to be viewed as the "voice of the umma" and the Palestinian people, receiving extensive media coverage, including Al-Jazeera. This article analyzes his speeches as a discursive phenomenon in terms of rhetoric (performative vs. informative), structure (opening, middle, and closing), and meaning (framing the war as a religious conflict). Here, it is argued that Abū 'Ubayda's primary objective was to use the performative rhetoric of framing, asserting, and support-calling to portray the conflict as a religious war of al-Aqsa's liberation while omitting local realities and specifics on the ground. The reintroduction of religious rhetoric to the Arab-Muslim public discourse and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is likely to make positions more entrenched and uncompromising.