A former soccer player for the Palestinian national team has allegedly been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip, according to the sport’s local governing body.
Suleiman al-Obeid, 41, known as the “Palestinian Pele,” was killed Wednesday when Israeli forces “targeted people waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) claimed in a statement.
With Gaza in the throes of a hunger crisis, the UN rights office said last month that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,300 Palestinians trying to get food aid in the territory since late May.
There was no immediate Israeli response to the statement. Israel has denied shooting at people waiting for aid, but says it has fired warning shots at those who come too close to troops.
An ex-star of the Khadamat Al-Shati club in Gaza, Obeid played 24 international matches for the Palestinian national team, the PFA said.
“During his long career, Al-Obeid scored more than 100 goals, making him one of the brightest stars of Palestinian football,” it added.
The midfielder also played for the Al-Amari Youth Center Club in the West Bank.
While living there in 2010, Obeid was among six players on the national team from Gaza who were turned back by Israeli officials at the Jordanian border while on their way to a friendly match in Mauritania, citing security reasons.
An Israeli security official said at the time that the players had failed to renew special permits allowing them to play in the West Bank. Israel had previously allowed the six players to travel with the team.
Born in Gaza City, Obeid was married and had five children.
Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution center operated by the US-backed organization, in Netzarim, central Gaza Strip, on August 4, 2025. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The war was sparked by the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s onslaught on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 were taken hostage, of whom 49 remain in captivity, most of them no longer alive.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
