GAZA, (PIC)
Since the start of the destructive Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Palestinian sports have paid a heavy price in human lives and infrastructure, without this being enough to exclude the Israeli occupation from the Paris Olympic Games, as Palestine had demanded.
The latest victim of Palestinian sports was Ismail Haneyya, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, who was mourned by the sports community as one of their cadres. Another renowned victim was Professor Adnan Al-Barsh, the head of the medical committee of the Football Association in the Gaza governorates, and the head of the Orthopedic Department at Al-Shifa Hospital, who died of torture in the Israeli occupation prisons.
According to estimates by the Palestinian Olympic Committee, 400 Palestinian athletes lost their lives in the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in addition to the destruction of facilities and the suspension of sports activities, as stated by the committee’s president, Jibril Al-Rajoub, during his meeting with Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee, in the French capital Paris, on the sidelines of the Olympic Games.
On more than one occasion, Rajoub called for the immediate suspension of the Israeli Football Association’s membership in FIFA, citing “systematic violations of FIFA’s laws and regulations, including the Israeli Football Association’s inclusion of clubs from illegal settlements.”
Rajoub spoke about the destruction of facilities and the use of football pitches as detention camps to detain and humiliate thousands of Palestinians, who were almost naked, as seen on television screens around the world.
A statistic published by the Palestinian Football Association in mid-July shows that among the martyrs are 240 football players and administrators, including 12 in the West Bank, and more than 33 from the scouting movement and about 70 from sports unions. The occupation army also destroyed 42 sports facilities, including 7 in the West Bank, according to the statistical report.
Systematic destruction
The head of the sports section of the daily newspaper Al-Quds, Fayez Nassar, says that “the martyr Ismail Haneyya is one of the martyrs of the sports movement and was a well-known player and previously played in more than one club.”
He pointed out in an interview with the Aljazeera.net website that “the sports movement lost hundreds of martyrs, referees, administrators, coaches and players from youth football academies.”
The martyrs include “the coach of the national Olympic team, Hani Maasar, and national team players Ismail Al-Maghribi and Muhammad Barakat.”
It was also mentioned that there are hundreds of injured, including Rizk Kheir, who played for the Jordanian club Al-Faisaly in the 1970s, and is currently severely injured, with his house demolished and having lost most of his family members. Meanwhile, Naji Ajour, one of the greatest football stars of the century in Palestine, lost his brothers and relatives, and their home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood was reduced to ashes.”
Regarding sports facilities, Nassar said that 70% of them were deliberately destroyed, and some were converted into detention centers, including the best sports facility in Gaza Al-Yarmouk stadium, where prisoners were tortured.
Difficulty in documentation
Sports journalist Yasser Youssef Al-Hawajri confirms the difficulty of obtaining information from the families of the martyrs to document the violations, given the disastrous situation in Gaza, the lack of electricity, and the disruption of communication networks.
He explains to the Al-Jazeera Net website that the purpose of the documentation is “to expose the racist practices of the occupation against our people, especially the sports movement”, noting the importance of recording and publishing the sports scenes of the martyrs to immortalize their memory.
He said that the documentation “comes from the reminder of the martyrs and their sports role, so that they are not forgotten in the Palestinian memory,” pointing out that “the athlete is a civilian person who is targeted without prior warning.”
Al-Hawajri mentioned that among the most prominent sports clubs in Gaza, most of which were affected, are: Al-Sadaqa, Ahli Al-Nusairat, Shabab Khan Yunis, and Al-Bureij Services. He added that among the most affected stadiums are: Palestine, Al-Yarmouk, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Al-Tuffah, and Khan Yunis.
He estimated that the total number of martyrs until the beginning of August reached 411 martyrs, including the martyrs of the Scouts Movement, while the number of wounded from the sports movement is estimated at hundreds.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, resulting in more than 39,500 martyrs, injuring more than 91,000 others, mostly children and women, and the displacement of about 1.9 million people, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction of health and educational infrastructure and famine that has claimed the lives of dozens of children.
