The Israeli Defense Forces have put names on it. Eleven Palestinian soccer players, referees, and coaches killed in IDF strikes during the Gaza war were not civilians caught in crossfire — they were active members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, according to an exclusive statement provided to Fox News Digital.
"They were presented as athletes and innocent civilians, but who in fact served as terrorists in the military wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip," the IDF said. Three of the eleven were allegedly involved in the October 7, 2023 massacre. Others allegedly held operational and leadership roles within terror structures running parallel to their football careers.
The names and the allegations
The IDF identified the players as Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Barakat, Mahmoud Kamal Mohammad Ali Al-Rifi, Mohammed Mansour, Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Abu Al-Atta, Abdullah Riyadh Abdullah Khattab, Ali Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Kurd, Mohammad Emad Ata Hussouna, Tariq Ziad Hussein Al-Hour, Mohammed Ziad Hussein Al-Hour, Mahmoud Osama Al-Jazzar, and Mohammad Nidal Mohammed Al-Hawajri.
The disclosures are a direct counterpunch to a sustained international campaign by the Palestinian Football Association, which reported roughly 1,009 members of its athletic community killed since October 2023. PFA president Jibril Rajoub has spent two years lobbying FIFA and the IOC to suspend Israel from international competition, citing athlete deaths and the destruction of sports infrastructure in Gaza as grounds for a permanent ban.
That campaign failed at FIFA's Disciplinary Committee, which rejected the suspension demand outright. Israel was fined 150,000 Swiss francs (approximately $190,700) for separate anti-discrimination violations and ordered to display a "Football Unites the World - No to Discrimination" banner during upcoming matches — a penalty that had nothing to do with the PFA's core argument.
A PR war being fought through sport
The IDF framed this release explicitly as a response to what it calls a deliberate disinformation strategy — one it says has also falsely presented killed terrorists as journalists and humanitarian aid workers. "The false campaign portraying the IDF as deliberately targeting members of the soccer community was created as part of a broader effort promoted by various actors against the State of Israel," the statement read.
None of this resolves the broader humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and the IDF's claims remain claims — intelligence assessments presented without independent verification. Fox News Digital contacted the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations for a response; none had been received at time of publication.
What it does do is significantly complicate the PFA's narrative at FIFA, just as pressure campaigns against Israeli football appeared to be gaining traction on the global stage. If even a portion of the IDF's identifications hold up to scrutiny, the argument that Israel systematically targeted athletes as athletes becomes much harder to sustain.
