News- Middle East: Israeli forces have killed Suleiman Ahmed Zaid al-Obaid, former captain of the Palestinian national football team, as he was attempting to collect humanitarian aid.

"Suleiman Al-Obaid, a former Palestine national team player, was killed in an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza," the Palestine Football Association (PFA) said in a statement.

Palestinian footballers have been directly targeted in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The football star is the 662nd member of the sports community to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, PFA added.

A gifted forward and winger, al-Obeid rose to prominence in the early 2000s and remained one of Palestine’s most admired players for over a decade.

He scored his first international goal for Palestine against Yemen during the 2010 West Asian Football Federation Championship.

“During his long career, Al-Obeid scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football,” the football association said.

He also represented the national team during the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualification and 2014 World Cup qualifying games.

Al-Obeid won the Gaza Strip Premier League's Golden Boot award for three straight seasons in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

He is the third Palestinian national team player to be killed by Israel during the genocide. Mouyin Al-Maghribi and Mohammed Barakat were murdered in January and March 2024, respectively.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has not only decimated Gaza’s infrastructure, hospitals, and schools but has also systematically targeted the Palestinian sports sector, a vital pillar of national identity.

In a statement released on July 29, 2025, the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) reported that in July alone, the Israeli regime killed 40 Palestinian athletes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“With each passing day, new chapters of the Palestinian sports tragedy unfold. These athletes are not killed on battlefields; they are assassinated while running after their children or searching for water and medicine. This war of starvation now hunts athletes, just as it does doctors and civilians,” the statement said.

Since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza, the regime has killed at least 61,158 Palestinians and wounded 151,442, most of them children and women.

Source: Press TV