A moment of silence was observed and then shouts of “free Palestine” rang out ahead of the Asian Cup game between Iran and the Palestinian soccer team on Sunday, while chants of “death to Israel” were heard during the game itself.
As the Israel-Hamas war reached the 100-day mark, both teams lined up in the center of the field at Education City Stadium and an announcement asked for silence “in memory of the lives tragically lost as a result of the ongoing situation in Palestine.”
A hush fell across the stadium in the city of Al-Rayyan in Qatar before the pro-Palestinian chants could be heard coming from members of the crowd.
The Palestinian soccer team’s preparations for the tournament have been carried out without domestic soccer, as well as limited opportunities to play competitive matches.
Three-time champion Iran won Sunday’s game 4-1. Iran scored two early goals as Karim Ansarifard struck inside two minutes and Shoja Khalilzadeh added another in the 12th.
Mehdi Ghayedi made it 3-0 in the 38th.
But the loudest cheers of the game came when Palestinian player Tamer Seyam pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time.
Sardar Azmoun scored a fourth for Iran 10 minutes after the break.
The war erupted in the wake of the Hamas terror group’s October 7 massacres on southern Israeli communities, when terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostages of all ages, amid horrific acts of brutality.
Israel’s ensuing military campaign, aimed at rooting out Hamas, has killed almost 24,000 people in Gaza, according to unverified figures by the terror group’s health ministry that are believed to include thousands of its members as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets. Israel says the dead include over 9,000 members of terror groups, and that 1,000 more were killed in Israel following the October 7 invasion.
Source » timesofisrael