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On 4 December 2023, midfielder Basel Al Ashqar awoke to the news that his entire family had been killed in a missile strike.
With Palestinian football suspended due to mounting safety concerns since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, Basel had not played for weeks for his club Al Amari and was living off donations from neighbours in the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Basel’s football career had already been curtailed as born in Gaza he was unable to play in competitions outside Palestine’s borders.
His father, mother, four brothers, four sisters, aunt, grandfather and grandfather were unable to leave Gaza to join him in the West Bank. They all perished together.
“Fifty people died when the missile struck,” Basel told Byline Times. “Because of the war they all gathered in the same house. They fled from different parts of Gaza. There is no safe area in Gaza, but they wanted to stay together to know that everyone’s OK.”
Basel says that they were not aware of anyone from Hamas nearby.
Football’s international governing body FIFA is due to make a decision this week that could see Israel face sporting sanctions for the first time in its history. However, it later announced it was postponing the decision, yet again.
In a statement FIFA wrote: “FIFA has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association’s proposals against the Israel Football Association. This assessment will be sent to the FIFA Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting, which will take place in October.”
At FIFA’s annual congress in Bangkok in May, Palestine Football Association (PFA)
president Jibril Rajoub called on FIFA “to stand on the right side of history” with
unprecedented numbers of athletes killed and sporting facilities destroyed in Israel’s counter attack on Gaza that continues unabated.
Referring to previous FIFA suspensions of Russia, Yugoslavia and Apartheid South Africa, he asked if FIFA considered “some victims to be more significant”.
Israeli Football Association (IFA) president Shino Moshe Zuares reminded FIFA delegates that Israelis were being held hostage, teams he represents were also impacted by hostilities, and accused Rajoub of a “cynical political and hostile attempt to harm Israeli football”.
President Gianni Infantino refused FIFA’s membership a vote on the PFA’s motion, instead
insisting FIFA’s governing council would reach a decision following external legal advice.
This was postponed again last month for more legal submissions from both sides and is
promised by the end of August.
Meanwhile, in July, the UN International Court of Justice reached a landmark decision that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is unlawful, deciding international organisations have an, “obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence”.
It’s been a decade since this reporter first visited the PFA to hear their demands that FIFA sanction Israeli football, a decision repeatedly kicked into the long grass as conditions have worsened.
The PFA’s plea for FIFA to act now cites the existential threats to Palestinian lives, sport and society and impediments to Palestine’s favourite game such as the destruction of pitches and denial of planning permission for new ones and the hazards for those involved.
The PFA insist that Israel has breached FIFA statutes on human rights, discrimination, friendly relations between member associations and allowing settlement teams to play in Israeli leagues from appropriated lands of another member state.
It alleges the IFA are complicit by incorporating illegal settlement teams, failing to take measures to combat discrimination, while its members openly support violations of humanitarian law in Gaza and take part in military service there.
The PFA have made submissions with “all the same violations we raised over a decade ago”
said PFA Vice President Susan Shalabi, only life and football in Palestine is much more
precarious now.
Our footballers and our football infrastructure are undergoing the same genocide that all Palestinians are suffering. We lost so many footballers, almost every football structure in Gaza is destroyed and we have evidence that the lsrael Football
Susan Shalabi, PFA Vice President
Association is complicit
Susan said the PFA have been documenting IFA members posting their support of the
destruction of Gaza on social media.
According to the PFA, almost every sporting space in Gaza is ruined by bombs, bulldozers
and tanks. Gaza’s oldest stadium, Yarmouk, a site used for sports since Palestine was a
British mandate, is now notorious for Israeli troops using it to detain humiliated Gazans,
including children, blindfolded and stripped to their underwear; its pitch where Olympians trained now destroyed by bulldozers.
When asked how many footballers have been killed in the current conflict, Susan explained that when the war started she had a blog “in which I started posting footballers we lost – I wanted to say something about each of them with their photo and their name, so I am not just counting numbers.”
After a faltering pause, Susan added, “but in the end it came down to numbers.”
According to the PFA’s latest figures, 297 footballers, including 84 children are among 410
athletes killed.
Many of Palestine’s best footballers were born and trained in Gaza’s vibrant football culture, including Hani Al-Masdar, renowned for his curling free kicks and latterly coaching the Olympic team.
Hani’s glittering career began in Al-Maghazi Refugee School team and he excelled in all age groups, his proudest moments representing his nation.
Hani’s cousin, Ayman Masdar, is now club president of one of Palestine’s biggest clubs Gaza Sports Club, for whom Hani lifted many trophies.
Ayman told Byline Times about his cousin’s numerous sporting achievements and the many Gazan footballers he had trained.
“Since the beginning of the war, Hani had been tirelessly helping people, especially displaced athletes,” he said.
Hani was supporting refugees from the assault on Gaza when missiles struck their neighbourhood on 6 January.
Ayman said he begged his cousin to stay indoors, but Hani feared for his mother and sister and headed to their home when he was cut down by shrapnel from another barrage of missiles. He died by the time he was carried to Gaza’s Al-Asa hospital, leaving behind four children, a decade after his father also died in an Israeli missile strike which a UN report called a “grave violation”.
Ayman said football in Gaza had become an important source of income for youth with
academies and sporting facilities improving standards so Gazans could compete at
international level.
Everything beautiful in our lives has been destroyed,” said Ayman. “The hardest thing after losing loved ones is leaving your home, leaving everything to the unknown and destruction. Life has stopped for us
Ayman Masdar, Gaza Sports Club
Gaza Sports Club’s stadium where Ayman worked, like Gaza’s other sporting infrastructure, lies in ruins. With half a million dollars in USAID donations it had been renovated in 2022, partly to encourage women’s sport.
Women’s football was well attended in Palestine before the roar of tanks and missiles
replaced the roar of fans.
“Football is extremely important to Palestinians. It’s the number one sport both watched and played, providing a sense of unity, pride, and nationality amidst the ongoing conflict,” said Administrative Director and former captain of the Palestinian Women’s National Football Team, Dima Said.
“However, Israeli practices like checkpoints and the apartheid wall make it difficult for fans to attend matches, further exacerbated by the current instability and violence.”
The situation had been “incredibly challenging for our women’s teams since October 7 due
to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and increased violence in the West Bank,” Dima told Byline Times.
“We’ve had to completely stop sports activities across the country. Many athletes in
Gaza have been killed, injured, amputated, or held captive illegally. In the West Bank,
athletes and sports infrastructure are targeted daily.”
Dima and Susan both detailed intimidation PFA staff had endured. “Palestinian athletes are denied the immunity and protection that should be provided by international sports bodies,” said Dima.
“We endure racial discrimination, threats, and inhumane searches at Israeli checkpoints. The restrictions on our movement severely impact our ability to train, compete, and live our lives freely.”
On his return from the Paris Olympics PFA president Jibril Rajoub was detained and
threatened with interrogation in Ofer detention camp, now notorious for torture and human rights abuse allegations.
It was not the first time Rajoub, also a member of Fatah’s Central Committee which governs the West Bank, has been detained or threatened with incarceration.
Susan also showed photographs of tear gas grenades thrown at their headquarters and said
one PFA employee had been shot with a live bullet in the leg when leaving work.
“We have suspended the league as it’s become more and more dangerous for players to
arrange activities on a large scale and move between cities,” Susan explained, adding: “The national team had to camp and train in Jordan as it’s too dangerous here because settlers are attacking people travelling between cities. The Minister of Interior is arming them to the teeth and allowing them to kill civilians.”
West Bank checkpoints and roadblocks have multiplied in recent months, along with land
confiscation.
Minister of Interior Ben Gvir has been heavily arming settlers since last October, resulting in more brazen attacks on Palestinians. Now Israeli military operations in the West Bank are escalating, along with death tolls.
According to the UN, 622 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October,
including 11 killed by Israeli settlers.
The Hamas-run Gazan Ministry of Health has counted 40,534 Gazans killed, 93,778 injured in Israel’s military offensive, the vast majority civilians, with thousands more missing. These figures are considered credible by the World Health Organisation among others, though the Israeli government disputes them and insists over 15,000 killed are “terrorists”.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks last October, 337 Israeli soldiers in the Gaza invasion that followed.
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Israel Football Association spokesman Shlomi Barzel insisted that his organisation would not face any sanctions, “not this week, not ever”.
He pointed out that Israeli matches in the Northernmost and Southern areas of Israel had also been disrupted. Both sides had been asked to submit their position to legal experts appointed by FIFA, he added, but “the suspension of Israel is not at all on the agenda and we are sure that the examination will be factual and fair, and once again find all our arguments justified. We are fully confident that any assessment by FIFA of both sides will find that the IFA, as always, operating according to all the rules of the organisation.”
FIFA has not responded to requests for a comment.