The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee - infamous for his threats, evacuation warnings and bad-taste humour - will retire after two decades of service, Israeli media reported Tuesday.
Israel’s Army Radio said there was currently no timeline for Adraee to leave his position, while talks were ongoing with military spokesperson Effie Defrin over both the timing and who should succeed Adraee, reports said.
"Dramatic Change in the Middle East: IDF Spokesperson in Arabic, Col. Avichay Adraee - Retiring from the IDF After About 20 Years in the Role," Army Radio correspondent Doron Kadosh wrote on X in Hebrew.
No more details were given.
Adraee began his military service in the Intelligence Directorate's Unit 8200, responsible for signals intelligence and cyber intelligence, and joined the spokesperson's unit in 2005.
He had become notorious over his social media engagement with Arabic speaking audiences, often speaking in colloquial Levantine dialects and responding to peoples’ videos on social media – even those criticising or attacking him.
But in the past two years especially, he has become a symbol of fear, panic, and warfare, issuing threats to civilian populations and ordering them to evacuate in countries that have come under Israeli attack since late 2023, particularly the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, as well as Yemen and Iran.
Often however, attacks have happened with no notice, killing dozens of people.
For many in the region, his Arabic heard in official statements with a thick Hebrew accent is often a sign of bad news to come.
Adraee is partly of Iraqi descent, with his maternal grandparents hailing from the country, and his paternal grandparents originating from Turkey and Syria.