The club, considered the oldest in the Gaza Strip, announced in a statement Sunday evening: "The general manager of the Gaza Sports Club, Louay Istita, has been martyred." Palestinian media reported Sunday evening that Istita, 46, was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting people waiting for aid in the Zikim axis area, north of the Gaza Strip.
Istitieh has served as the administrative director of Gaza Sports Club since 2015 and is a former handball star.
On Tuesday, Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said, "Palestinian sports are experiencing an unprecedented catastrophe after losing 774 martyrs as a result of the Israeli war (the genocide in Gaza)."
He added, "Among these are 355 football players, 277 from sports federations, 142 martyrs from the Palestinian Scouts, and 119 missing persons."
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Rajoub continued: "The number of sports media martyrs has reached 15," noting that "288 sports facilities in the (occupied) West Bank and the Gaza Strip were completely or partially destroyed (due to Israeli occupation bombing)."
The martyrdom of Palestinian athletes comes within the context of a genocide perpetrated by Israel since October 7, 2023, including murder, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The Israeli genocide left 63,557 Palestinians dead, 160,660 injured, most of them children and women, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that killed 348 Palestinians, including 127 children.
