OMM Newsroom
An Israeli airstrike killed Mahmoud Kamal Fares Abdel-Malek, a 20-year-old Palestinian goalkeeper, in Gaza five days after he played in a tournament final honoring athletes and sports officials killed since October 2023, the Palestinian Football Association said, according to Anadolu Agency.
Abdel-Malek, captain and goalkeeper of Gaza Sports Club, was killed on Tuesday in the Sabra neighborhood of southern Gaza City. His death brings the reported toll among Palestinian athletes and sports workers to 1,017, the association said.
His club finished second in the Gaza and Northern Gaza division of the Thousand Martyrs Cup. The final was held on Nov. 5.
The tournament marked a return to organized football after Israel’s war and the destruction of sporting facilities forced a prolonged suspension. It began on Sept. 4 and drew more than 200 teams from Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Days before Abdel-Malek’s death, the association announced that another young footballer had been killed. It said on Saturday that Israeli forces shot and killed Mohammed Nidal Barbakh, a 15-year-old player at Al-Najma Sports Academy, while he was playing football with friends in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.
Tuesday’s airstrike came amid what the report described as continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 74,600 Palestinians and wounded nearly 176,000, according to the report. Most of those killed or wounded were women and children. The war has also destroyed 90% of the territory’s infrastructure.
