Criticism is mounting over FIFA’s silence as the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) reports the killing of goalkeeper Saleem Al-Ashqar by Israeli forces in Gaza earlier this week.
The PFA said that Al-Ashqar was killed by fire opened by occupation forces. It said he was one of hundreds of Palestinian sporting figures killed, including more than 1,000 Palestinian athletes, since the genocidal war began in October 2023.
Al-Ashqar, 32, played as a goalkeeper for Khadamat Khan Younis and had previously featured for Al-Aqsa and Al-Musaddar sports clubs in Gaza. He was shot in the town of Al-Qarara, northeast of Khan Younis, according to the PFA and Palestinian news agency WAFA, and had gotten married five months ago.
His wife is expecting the couple’s first child, and was the only son among seven siblings.
The report was followed by an outpouring of grief from relatives, teammates and the wider Palestinian sporting as well as global community.
“We deeply mourn the tragic death of 32-year-old Palestinian goalkeeper Salim Al-Ashqar. He was killed by the Israeli army. We are deeply saddened by the continuation of such events. We call for justice and peace,” Chilean football club Deportivo Palestino said Wednesday.
Al-Ashqar’s death adds to a long list of Palestinian athletes killed since the war began. Mohammed Barakat, one of Gaza’s top goal scorers and captain of Ahly Gaza, known as “the legend of Khan Younis”, was killed in Israeli bombing of his home in March 2024.
Hani Al-Masdar, assistant coach of the Palestine Olympic Football Team, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike while in July 2025, Muhannad al-Lili, captain of the Al-Maghazi Services Club and a member of Palestine’s national football team, died from injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike on his family home.
Israeli strikes have also destroyed hundreds of sports facilities across Gaza, including all of the territory’s professional football stadiums.
The overall death toll in Gaza has continued to climb since the genocide began on October 7, 2023. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 73,000 Palestinians had been killed as of late June 2026, with over 173,000 injured despite a ceasefire.
