Palestinian sports during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip

Palestinian sports has gotten worse due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. As of 26 July 2024, around 400 Palestinian sportspeople, at least 245 of them footballers (69 children and 176 young men), were killed in Israeli attacks according to the Palestine Olympic Committee and the Palestinian Football Association. The Israeli invasions have also led to destruction of stadiums and closure of clubs.

Stadiums
In January 2024, video emerged 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".

Many stadiums in Gaza were among the structures destroyed by Israeli air and artillery attacks, and some football fields have been repurposed as temporary burial sites for some of the deceased due to the overcrowding or inaccessibility of many cemeteries.

References

Category:Palestinian culture