Ex-footballer, known as ‘Palestinian Pele’, killed by Israeli troops in Gaza

Former Palestinian national team player Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the «Palestinian Pele», was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip, the local administrative body of the sport said.

Obeid, 41, was killed on Wednesday when Israeli troops «focused on people who waited for humanitarian aid in the Southern Gaza Strip,» said the Palestinian football club (PFA) in a statement.

With Gaza in the grip of a hunger crisis, the UN law agency said last month that the Israeli troops had killed more than 1,300 Palestinians since the end of May to get food aid in the territory.

According to PFA, Mahmoud Rafi Shahin, Odeh Mohammad Al-Hathalen and Hadi Mahmoud Halawa are other football players killed by Israel since July in attacks by Israel.

An ex-Star from the Khadamat Al-Shati Club in Gaza, Obeid played 24 international matches for Team Palestine, said the PFA.

«During his long career, Al-Obeid scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the smartest stars in Palestinian football,» it added.

The midfielder also played for the Al-Amari Youth Center Club on the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

While he lived there in 2010, Obeid was one of the six players in the national team from Gaza who had returned to a friendly in Mauritania for ‘security reasons’ on the Jordanian border.

At the time, an Israeli security officer said that the players had failed to extend special permits so that they could play on the West Bank.

«When I heard that it would be forbidden to us to travel, I was very upset because every athlete dreams of wearing his national sweater in international forums,» OBETE said AFP In 2010.

«We want to be able to travel freely with our families, just like athletes somewhere else in the world.»

Israel had previously allowed the six players to travel with the team.

Obeid, born in Gaza City, was married and had five children.

Since the start of the Gaza War, activated by the Palestinian militant group of Hamas’s attack of October 2023 on Israel, 662 people from the sports and reconnaissance sector have been killed, including 321 in the football community, according to the PFA.

According to the Hamas health minister, the offensive of Israel killed at least 61,258 in Gaza.

The 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the death of 1,219 people, according to one AFP count based on official figures.