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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 b