From October 7, 2023, to July 3, 2026:
Former Palestinian national team player Suleiman Al-Abeed killed by Israeli forces in August 2025.
Ramallah, July 7, 2026
The OIC Media Observatory on Israeli Crimes Against Palestinians highlights the state of sports in the Gaza Strip as the world prepares for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The OIC Observatory revealed the extent of the tragedy that has befallen sports activities in the Gaza Strip, particularly after Israeli occupation forces killed 928 athletes in a thousand days and destroyed most of the sports facilities and halls, forcing Palestinians in the Strip to conduct their sports activities amidst the rubble of demolished buildings and inside tents.
According to the Palestinian Sports Media Union, Israeli occupation forces killed 1,012 Palestinians from the sports, youth, and scouting movements in the Gaza Strip and destroyed 285 sports facilities between the start of the war of annihilation in October 2023 and July 3, 2026.
The people of Gaza are attempting to revive some sports activities through individual and collective efforts, but the real challenge preventing them from achieving their full potential lies in the lack of suitable sports facilities, the difficulty of transportation and access to training grounds due to the severe shortage of vehicles and the high cost of taxis, the destruction of roads, and the Israeli occupation, which fragments the Gaza Strip.
Gaza residents also suffer from a shortage of standardized sportswear, its high prices in the limited-resource markets, and the lack of essential nutrients and supplements for athletic activities, compounded by the restrictions imposed by the occupation on the entry of food through crossings under a suffocating Israeli blockade.
For residents of the Gaza Strip, sports offer a way to cope with the difficult psychological state most of them endure. They also see it as a form of much-needed psychological support to help them face the challenges stemming from the lack of services, education, and healthcare, as well as the lawlessness and chaos following the destruction of 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have managed to overcome many of these challenges with the establishment of the “Gaza of Will” football club for people with disabilities, comprised of players who suffered amputations during the Israeli offensive.
Mohammed Al-Sheikh Khalil, a sports referee and physical education teacher, told WAFA that the Gaza Strip has witnessed a tentative return of some sporting activities since the ceasefire agreement was signed in October 2015. Those involved in various sports activities have begun organizing local tournaments and training courses in displacement camps. Sheikh Khalil and others are working to utilize available resources to train children, who constituted the largest percentage of victims of the Israeli aggression. The OIC Observatory recorded the killing of 21,500 children out of the 73,066 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces during the first 1,000 days of the military attack. This number also includes 1,022 children under one year old and 520 infants born after the start of the offensive and killed during it.
The sports community also witnessed the killing of several prominent athletes, including baseball player Reham Al-Khatib in September 2025, in addition to the murdering of former Palestinian national team player Suleiman Al-Abeed by Israeli forces in August 2025 while he was waiting for humanitarian aid. This crime not only highlighted the suffering of Palestinians in their bloody struggle to obtain food, but also reflected the reality of sports, like other fields, and its suffering under the Israeli military machine, which indiscriminately targeted everyone. Al-Abeed was one of 2,605 murdered who perished while attempting to obtain food aid in what were essentially death traps, in addition to 19,124 others who were injured and more than 200 who went missing.