Liverpool attacker Mohamed Salah On Saturday, UEFA’s tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the ‘Palestinian Pele’, after the administrative body of European football could not refer to the circumstances surrounding his death this week.
The Palestine Football Association said that Al-opid, 41, was killed by an Israeli strike that focused on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
In a short message on the social media platform XUEFA called the former national team member «A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest time.»
Salah replied: «Can you tell us how he died, where and why?»
UEFA was not immediately available to comment.
One of the biggest stars of the Premier League, the 33-year-old Egyptian Salah, has previously argued for humanitarian aid that Gaza admitted in the almost two-year war.
The PFA later placed a statement on her Facebook page attributed to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and called Al-Obeid ‘the proof of the joy that can flourish in the hearts of people despite deprivation.
«He gave his talent and dedication to the children of Gaza and gave their dreams a lot to bloom despite suffering,» was the explanation.
«His death is a big loss for the football world and for everyone who recognizes the power of sport to unite people,» it added.
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The PFA said on Saturday that 325 players, coaches, managers, referees and club board members in the Palestinian football community have died in the Israeli conflict since October 2023.
The war started after Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas had carried out a cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1200 people and killed more than 250 hostages according to the Israeli authorities.
The subsequent Air and Ground campaign from Israel has raised the entire neighborhoods in Gaza, moved most of the population of 2.3 million and pushed the enclave to the edge of the famine, according to the United Nations.
The UN says that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the distribution sites of the help and helping convoys in Gaza since the launch of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an auxiliary distribution system of the device supported by the US and Israel at the end of May.
