The Israeli military says 12 Gaza football (soccer) players, coaches, and referees killed in Israeli strikes during the war were not targeted because of their connection to sports, but because they were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The IDF released the names and affiliations on Wednesday, saying the men had been presented internationally as innocent athletes while their ties to terrorist organizations were ignored or concealed.
It was a familiar pattern. A Gazan killed in an Israeli strike is first introduced to the world through a sympathetic civilian label: journalist, aid worker, doctor, athlete. The headlines follow. Then the outrage. Only later, if at all, comes the part about Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
This time, the civilian label was football, and the timing could hardly have been more convenient with the World Cup dominating global attention.
Among those named by the IDF was Mohammed Emad Hassouna, captain of Shabab Al-Zawaida, whom the military identified as a Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre.
The army also named Mohammed Mansour, described as a player and youth fitness coach for Khadamat Al-Nuseirat. According to the IDF, Mansour simultaneously served as deputy commander of Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion and also took part in the Oct. 7 invasion.
Meet some of Hamas & Islamic Jihad’s “soccer players”: pic.twitter.com/nRdvM08AvG
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 22, 2026
Another case involved Mohammed Sami Mohammed Khattab, an international assistant referee who officiated regional matches. The IDF said he was a member of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade.
The list also included Ahmed Abu al-Atta, a defender for several Gaza clubs. Israel said Islamic Jihad’s own military wing later published his photo and identified him as a platoon commander.
Other names released by the IDF included Ali al-Kurd, a former midfielder and coach serving as an Islamic Jihad platoon commander in Rafah; Mahmoud Osama al-Jazzar, a goalkeeper the army said was an Islamic Jihad operative; and Abdullah Riyad Abdullah Khattab, whom Israel identified as part of Islamic Jihad’s anti-tank array.
The IDF said the cases show how terrorist groups exploit civilian professions and public sympathy to blur the line between combatant and innocent.
That is the point so often missed, or deliberately avoided. Having a profession, a uniform, a camera, a press card, or a football jersey does not cancel membership in a terrorist organization.
Israel does not target athletes. It targets terrorists. And in Gaza, the international community keeps pretending the two can never be the same person.
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