The Palestinian Football Association confirmed that Mahmoud Kamal Fares Abdel-Malek, a 20-year-old goalkeeper and captain of Gaza Sports Club, was killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City's southern Sabra neighbourhood on Tuesday. The PFA said Abdel-Malek was the 1,017th person involved in sport killed in Gaza since October 2023. He had played in the final of the Thousand Martyrs Cup, a tournament named after more than 1,000 athletes and sports officials killed in the Strip, five days before his death.
Gaza Sports Club finished as runners-up in that tournament final. More than 200 clubs competed across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Abdel-Malek's death came days after Israeli forces killed 15-year-old Mohammad Nidal Barbak on Friday while he was playing football with friends in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Israeli attacks have destroyed more than 50 of Gaza's 56 sports clubs and about 20 five-a-side football fields, according to Mustafa Siam, secretary-general of the Palestinian Sports Media Federation. He told Anadolu news agency in August that Palestinian sport faced an "existential" crisis.
The Palestinian Football Association has called for the Israeli Football Association to be expelled from international institutions. In March, FIFA's disciplinary committee found that the Israeli Football Association "failed to take meaningful action against Beitar Jerusalem" for "persistent and well-documented racist behaviour."