While The World Cup Plays On, Gaza Lost Another Goalkeeper.
By Verity Quill
Gaza Loses Another Footballer During The World Cup
Saleem Khader Al-Ashqar was 32 years old, a goalkeeper for Khan Younis Services Club, and part of Gaza’s football community. He had been married for only five months and was expecting his first child with his wife. He was the only son among seven siblings.
According to WAFA, Al-Ashqar was killed on Monday after being shot by Isr*eli forces in Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He had also played for Al-Aqsa and Al-Musaddar sports clubs during his football career in the Gaza Strip.
His killing came as the 2026 World Cup continued thousands of miles away, with stadium lights, packed crowds, television coverage and global celebration. In Gaza, football now exists in a different reality: players displaced or killed, clubs broken apart, and stadiums turned into shelters.
The Reported Toll On Palestinian Football
A Sporting Life Turned Into Ruins
The damage is not only measured in names. It is also measured in places. Reporting on the broader devastation of Gaza’s sporting infrastructure describes roughly 285 sports facilities destroyed, some bulldozed and others bombed, with Al-Yarmouk Stadium, once Gaza’s flagship football ground, now serving as a tent city for displaced families.
That image captures the cruelty of the moment. While the World Cup sells football as joy, unity and escape, Gaza’s football grounds are being used for survival.
Football Still Survives In Gaza
Even under bombardment, displacement and blackout conditions, Gazans have still tried to watch the World Cup, following matches from shelters, cafes and damaged buildings, often with unreliable power, weak internet and drones overhead. That does not make the story lighter. It makes it heavier.
Football in Gaza is not just sport anymore. It is memory. It is grief. It is a way of holding onto normal life while the structures that made normal life possible are being destroyed.
Saleem Khader Al-Ashqar was one goalkeeper, five months married, waiting to become a father. His death now sits inside a much larger story: a football community counting its dead while the world watches the same game under brighter lights.
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