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A renowned football player was among those killed in the latest Israeli attack on starving Gazans seeking aid in the besieged territory, the Palestinian Football Association said.
Suleiman Al-Obeid, nicknamed the “Palestinian Pelé”, was shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday while waiting near an aid distribution centre.
He was 41 years old.
Al-Obeid is survived by his wife and five children.
“The former Palestine national team player, Suleiman Al-Obaid, was killed in an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip,” the PFA said in a statement on social media.
Al-Obeid scored over 100 goals in a career spanning nearly a decade and a half, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football.
He last played for Palestinian club Khadamat Al-Shatea.
Al-Obaid was regarded as one of the most talented attacking midfielders to play in the Gaza Strip League, earning him the nickname “Pelé of Palestine" after the Brazilian great, the association said.
Al-Obeid’s death took the number of athletes and their families killed in Gaza since Israel began the war in October 2023 to 662, it said, adding that 321 of them were players, coaches, referees, administrators, and club board members associated with the football association.
Israeli forces have reportedly killed more than 1,300 Palestinians at aid distribution centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial group mandated by Israel and the US at the expense of reputable international agencies, since May.
The UN as well as established charities have criticised the GHF’s aid plan for not adhering to humanitarian principles.
In a damning report released on Thursday, titled “This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing”, Doctors Without Borders denounced the Israeli food distribution scheme as “institutionalised starvation and dehumanisation”.
“The GHF distribution sites fall dangerously short of any recognised standard for safe and dignified humanitarian distributions,” it said.
A Palestinian girl reacts to the destruction caused by an Israeli strike on the Sheikh Radwan Health Centre in the north of Gaza City on 6 August 2025(AFP via Getty)
Israel's security cabinet cleared a plan early on Friday to occupy the Gaza City, hours after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intended to take military control of the entire territory despite mounting criticism.
Total control of the territory would reverse a 2005 decision to withdraw Israeli citizens and soldiers from Gaza while retaining control over its borders, airspace and utilities.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera the group would treat any force formed to govern Gaza as an "occupying" force linked to Israel.
Israel’s ground and air assault on Gaza has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, displaced almost all of its 2.2 million inhabitants, and pushed them to the verge of famine, according to local health officials and aid groups.