In the past nine months, Israel has killed at least 350 athletes, including 250 footballers, writes Abubaker Abed.
It’s natural that Gaza, a place where life can be taken away in an instant, lived and breathed sport.
It was our lifeline. Under a 17-year blockade and continuous Israeli bombardment, it was difficult to find moments to escape, but we did.
Every week, we’d fill Gaza’s stadiums to the rafters, cheer on our favourite players, and chant their names till our voices broke.
We were just like you: glued to our screens as Morocco shocked Spain at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, rooted for Usain Bolt as he broke the 100m record at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and teared up as Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez waved a Palestinian flag after a Premier League match.
But that was when we had homes, when we had stadiums, when we had life.
Now only four out of Gaza’s 54 sports facilities remain; only one of Gaza’s 10 stadiums stands. All are located in Deir al-Balah, where I live, in central Gaza: the Al-Dorra Stadium, Ittihad Deir al-Balah, Khadamat Deir al-Balah, and Al-Salah Club.
These pitches, shells of what they once were, are now sanctuaries for tens of thousands of displaced Gazans from the north of the Gaza Strip. When I pass them, my heart aches.
Pitches are no longer places of joyful escapism; they embody our collective misery.
As I walk past, scores of ramshackle tents dot the pitch, children cry with the pangs of hunger, the elderly cough, and young girls in torn clothes queue for water and food — and they are the lucky ones.
Just a few months ago, footage from al-Yarmouk Stadium emerged in which Palestinian civilians, men, women, and children, bound and beaten, were subjected to public Israeli torture: the stadium had been turned into an internment camp. Hours later, Israeli tanks bulldozed the pitch.
Israel has killed off Gaza’s sporting talent
Since Israel’s genocidal rampage on Gaza began, at least 350 athletes have been murdered by Israel, including 250 footballers. Each sports club mourns its members, with numbers continuing to rise every day.
On July 13, Shadi Abu Al-Arraj, Khan Younis’ Youth Club goalkeeper, was killed in the Al-Mawasi massacre. In April, Israel killed two brothers from the Al-Wahda Academy, Mohammed and Sami Abu-Isa; they were six and four years old.
In March, Mohammed Barakat, the first player in Gaza to score a hundred professional goals, was killed in his home.
Even managers have not been spared; Gaza’s promising young manager Yousef Al-Heela was killed in an attack on Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp last April.
In addition, 33 members of the Palestinian scouts and 69 Olympians have been killed by Israel, including Gaza’s first Olympian, the legendary Majed Abu Maraheel.
Last week, the eight-person Palestinian Olympic team left Ramallah to participate in the Paris Olympics. But Gaza’s Olympians have either been left behind, are too traumatised to participate or have been killed or injured. All have had their dreams buried under the rubble.
Seeing Israeli athletes, some of whom signed bombs for Gaza, laugh and joke at the Olympics has only rubbed more salt into our wounds. Today, as Israel walks out to the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, it’s clear that the international sporting community, far from uniting and standing together against injustice, has been exposed as a hypocritical, complicit community that stands with the oppressors, not the oppressed.
And it’s not just the Olympics, I’ve had enough of FIFA’s double standards. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, both the Olympic Committee and FIFA were quick to sanction and ban Russia from all sporting activities. Yet FIFA remains silent, or has been muzzled, in condemning Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Last week, FIFA stalled, again, over sanctioning Israeli football. This postponement will, no doubt, encourage Israel to continue to behave without consequence. It will mean that Israel will destroy more sporting facilities, kill more athletes, and further its goal to destroy sports in Gaza.
Every day that Israel is allowed to compete in international tournaments is another reminder to Gazans that we’ve been abandoned. And until the sporting community takes a stand and says ‘Enough is enough’ and refuses to host Israel, I, alongside my fellow Gazan fans, will turn our backs on FIFA and the Olympics.
Abubaker Abed is a Palestinian journalist, writer, and translator from Deir al-Balah Refugee Camp in Gaza, interested in sports and languages.
Follow him on Twitter/X: @AbubakerAbedW and Linkedin
