Palestinian sports during the 2023–2024 Israeli invasion of Gaza

Palestinian sports has deteriorated due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza. By May 2023, at least 265 Palestinian sportsmen, 55 of them footballers, were killed in Israeli attacks, of whom 18 were children and 37 teenagers. The Israeli invasions have also led to destruction stadiums and closure of clubs.

Background
The Arab Palestine Sports Federation was founded in 1931 and re-established in 1944. The federation had 55 affiliated sports clubs until the Nakba (the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians by Israel) stopped Palestinian national sports and drove most of the Palestinians to exile and refugee camps. After the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian Football Federation joined various international sports federations including FIFA. However, since then, the federation has faced constant challenges in building a sustainable national football infrastructure. This is mainly due to the persistent fragmentation of the Palestinian land and population. However, the arena of sports has emerged as a powerful platform to express solidarity with political causes of Palestine. Arab players and fans—often use sporting events to raise the Palestinian flag. Palestinian football survived the developments of the second intifada from 2000 to 2005, the deepening of the occupation and the five Israeli wars on Gaza, and the national team successfully qualified for three consecutive rounds of the Asian Nations Cup. Palestine was on the verge of the 2026 men's World Cup qualifiers when the latest round of conflict between Hamas and Israel began, leaving the Palestinian National Football Stadium in the Israeli-occupied West Bank potentially unsafe for the tournament. Meanwhile, Gaza's football players are exposed to the full wrath of Israel's war. In recent decades there have been calls to ban Israel from international sporting events in response to the jailing and targeting Palestinian athletes, as well as preventing competitors from Gaza from leaving to join their West Bank teammates to play abroad.

Athletes killed during the invasion
By December 2023, at least 85 Palestinian athletes, 55 of them footballers, were killed in Israeli attacks, of whom 18 were children and 37 teenagers. In addition, the Palestinian Football Association counts 24 managers and technical staff who have been killed. Hani Al-Masry, a former footballer and CEO of the Palestinian National Olympic Team, was among the victims. Israeli forces killed 23-year-old football player Ahmed Daraghmeh in the West Bank. The famous Arabic football website Kooora introduced him as the best scorer of this team with 6 goals this season. Israel also killed Hani al-Masdar, the coach of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team, who was known as Abu Abad in Palestine.

On October 11, amid heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Mohammed Balah was killed. He was pulled out from under the rubble of his house and came out covered in blood and wearing Shabab Rafah shorts. Mohammed Balah, 30, left Gaza for Jordan six years ago to build a professional career. His success led to his debut for the national team shortly after and he continued to play for five clubs in Jordan, Oman and Egypt. Balah had survived previous attacks on Gaza. In May 2021, his house was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. But in one of his last social media posts, dated Oct. 10, he was less optimistic about surviving the latest round of violence. The Al-Breij basketball player, Bassim al-Nabahin, 27; Football player Rashid Dabbour (28) who played in Al-Ahli Beit Hanoon team, were also among the dead. Also, two Palestinian volleyball players, Hassan Abu Zuaiter and Ibrahim Qusaya, who played for the national team and the Al-Sadaka Club, were killed in an Israeli attack that targeted the Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip. Jibril Rajub, President of the Palestinian Football Federation, stated that the conflict in Gaza initiated by Israel has caused significant damage to the sports and youth movements. Rajub reported that over 1,000 individuals involved in sports, youth, and scouting have lost their lives. He also alleged that Israeli forces have deliberately attacked Palestinian sports clubs, which he claimed is a clear violation of the Olympic charter.

Destruction of stadiums
Annoying video appeared of Israeli troops using Yarmouk Stadium as a temporary jail for Palestinian prisoners. A group of armed troops and tanks surrounded the field and people with eyes covered, some "stripped down to their underwear". According to the non-profit Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli army detained hundreds of Palestinians from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, including dozens of women who have been taken to Yarmouk Stadium. According to the human rights organization "Palestinian males, including children as young as 10 years old and elderly people over the age of 70, were forced to take off all of their clothes except their underwear and line up in a humiliating manner in front of the women detained in the same stadium".

Stadiums as cemetries
The destruction of stadiums and the use of them as graves due to the lack of cemeteries has added to the distressing situation. The team's coach mentioned that some players have experienced significant loss in the Israeli-bombarded enclave, leading to a constant feeling of anxiety for their families. A large part of Gaza has been devastated, with stadiums among the structures destroyed by air and artillery attacks as well as a ground invasion. Football fields have been repurposed as temporary burial sites for some of the deceased due to the overcrowding or inaccessibility of many cemeteries.

Closure of sports clubs
The Lajee Celtic football club, also informally referred to as Aida Celtic, has suspended all operations due to the escalating violence that has occurred throughout the occupied West Bank. Mohammad Azzeh, the director of the Lajee cultural centre, states that the taking the decision of halting the activities of Lajee Celtic and the academy was "hard but necessary" since felt obligated to safeguard the children and staff from imminent raids by Israeli soldiers on the Aida camp. For Mohammad Azzeh the football team has a meaning beyond sports - it plays a role in the resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Reactions
Jordan Football Association called on the world sporting community "to take decisive action to stop the aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories" through a statement, so that it is isolated from international sports. The Palestinian Football Association also announced sending similar messages to the Fifa and International Olympic Committee, citing the "horrific images" at the time of Israel's attack on Yarmouk Stadium, Gaza Strip. Other movements, such as the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, have long supported the expulsion or suspension of the Israel Football Association due to hosting Fifa-sanctioned matches in the West Bank Israeli settlements, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Also, the killing of Palestinian athletes prompted athletes around the world to launch campaigns to support Israel's ban from the 2024 Summer Olympics in pairs. They are seeking a full investigation into possible violations of the Olympic Charter, which considers sport as a fundamental human right.

Both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee have avoided a statement condemning the war between Israel and Gaza and the subsequent humanitarian crisis, unlike how they handled Russian invasion of Ukraine. "Fifa has for years actively shielded Israel from accountability for its ongoing war crimes and violations of Fifa's own statutes through its inclusion of teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Fifa has gone so far as to sanction not the illegal settlement clubs but fan clubs expressing support for Palestinian human rights. This is how these hypocritical bodies express ‘neutrality,’" BDS announced. According to sports writer Dave Zirin, the hypocrisy is especially apparent when you consider that the International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian Olympic Committee for violating the Olympic Charter after invading Ukraine and seizing its sports grounds. Jules Boykoff, author of the book What Are the Olympics For writes: "The double standards are glaring. Why has the IOC been so conspicuously silent about Israel compared to Russia? If taking over sports facilities are a red line, why silence as Israel converts Gaza’s historic Yarmouk football stadium into an internment camp? The inconsistencies are glaring, to say the least."