The letter, addressed to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin on Thursday, said banning Israel is “imperative”, citing a report by United Nations investigators that confirmed Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians.

It urged the football governing body and its members to “fulfil their legal and moral obligations to uphold international law, and move forward with an immediate and complete ban of Israeli football”.

The letter highlighted the damage that Israel is inflicting on the sport in Gaza. At least 421 Palestinian footballers have been killed since Israel began its military offensive in October 2023, and the letter explained that Israel’s bombing campaign is “systematically destroying Gaza’s football infrastructure”.

“These acts have decimated an entire generation of athletes, eroding the fabric of Palestinian sport,” it read.

“The failure of the Israel Football Association (IFA) to challenge these violations implicates it in this system of oppression, rendering its participation in UEFA competitions untenable.”

The letter’s signatories included Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, the executive director of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, as well as several former UN experts and scholars in international law.

“UEFA must not be complicit in sports-washing such flagrant breaches of international law, including but not limited to the act of genocide,” the statement said.

It comes amid growing international outrage at Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed more than 66,000 people and turned most of the enclave into rubble.

A blockade on humanitarian aid in the territory has also sparked deadly hunger, leading to a declaration of famine in August for more than half a million people in Gaza.

Swift action against Russia
Craig Mokhiber, a former director for the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said allowing a country that commits genocide to participate in sports allows for its “normalisation”. That, in turn, “is an act of complicity”.

“We remember well the situation in apartheid South Africa, where the world unified to isolate the regime in order to change its behaviour, and that included – very importantly – sports boycotts and cultural boycotts,” Mokhiber told Al Jazeera.

The international football governing body FIFA suspended South Africa in 1961 due to the country’s apartheid regime. The move was seen as a historic triumph for the global movement to end the violence and segregation.

More recently, in 2022, both FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia within days of it launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s a stunning level of hypocrisy and double standards that they reacted so quickly and so forcefully with regard to Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine, and yet have been dragging their feet in trying to avoid action when it comes to a full-blown genocide by a regime that has been certified as practising apartheid,” said Mokhiber.

Palestinian rights advocates have been calling to ban Israel from world football competitions for decades, in part because Israel has professional teams based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

FIFA’s rules unambiguously state that “member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval”.

Yet, Israel’s clubs and national teams continue to participate in international competitions through FIFA and UEFA.

Although based in West Asia, Israel joined UEFA in 1994 amid Arab and Muslim boycotts of its teams.

Growing push to ban Israel
As the attacks on Gaza continue, Israel’s national team is participating in the European World Cup qualifiers, and its clubs are competing in UEFA’s continental tournaments, with Maccabi Tel Aviv FC featured in this season’s Europa League.

But calls for ostracising Israel from world football have been gaining momentum in recent months.

Football fans from Glasgow to Paris to Rome to Bilbao have been flying Palestinian flags to show solidarity with Gaza, despite restrictions against such displays.

After Israel killed Palestinian football legend Suleiman al-Obeid in an August air strike, there were also appeals for the violence to end.

One such call came from UEFA itself. The federation published the late footballer’s photo on the social media platform X with the caption: “Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the ‘Palestinian Pele’. A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times.”

But Liverpool star Mohamed Salah criticised UEFA for failing to mention who killed him. “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?” Salah wrote in a response.

Days later, the pre-game presentation of the UEFA Super Cup featured a banner that said: “Stop killing civilians. Stop killing children.”

The UEFA Foundation also included two Palestinian refugee children in the medal ceremony.

According to multiple news reports from Europe, UEFA was going to vote to suspend Israel soon, but the move was postponed after United States President Donald Trump released a ceasefire plan for Gaza.

Thursday’s letter warned UEFA that Trump’s proposal does not absolve the federation of its responsibility to ban Israel.

“This is because, while the plan purports to offer a pathway to peace, in reality it undermines international law, Palestinian sovereignty, and the principles of self-determination,” it read.

“It does not impose any obligations on the State of Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also fails to address the legal consequences of the genocide in Gaza or make any demands of Israel to provide reparations to the Palestinians. Peace cannot be achieved without justice and accountability.”

Human rights nonprofit weighs in
On Wednesday, Amnesty International also called on FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel.

“As Israel’s national football team gears up for World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Italy, Israel continues to perpetrate genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the group’s chief, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement.

“At the same time, Israel is brutally expanding its illegal settlements and legitimizing illegal outposts in the West Bank as part of its unlawful occupation of Palestinian Territory.”

Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, no country or club in Europe has withdrawn outright in protest from a game against Israeli teams despite the growing international pleas to shun the country.

A boycott of a match against Israel would give Israel an automatic 3-0 victory.

Ashish Prashar – a campaign director at Game Over Israel, the group that helped organise Thursday’s letter – highlighted football’s role in building a global community, as the most popular sport in the world by far.

“Culture is the way to normalise that in a way that is more valuable to the perpetrators of the genocide than even having a seat at the UN,” Prashar told Al Jazeera.

“So, it is imperative to follow the model that was put before us with apartheid South Africa, of knocking Israel out of culture, but specifically sports and starting with football.”

Game Over Israel has been leading a media campaign underscoring the genocide in Gaza and calling for a football boycott of the country.

Last month, the group sponsored a billboard in New York City’s bustling Times Square that said, “Israel is committing genocide. Soccer federations: Boycott Israel.”

‘FIFA cannot solve geopolitical problems’
Israel’s top ally, the US, is co-hosting the World Cup next year, and President Trump has been chummy with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino.

In light of the leaders’ warm relationship, Prashar said he is not optimistic that the international federation will make a move against Israel. But he added that individual countries can force FIFA’s hand if they announce boycotts of Israel.

On Thursday, Infantino suggested that FIFA is not ready to penalise the US ally.

“FIFA cannot solve geopolitical problems, but it can and must promote football around the world by harnessing its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values,” he said in a statement.

Mokhiber, the former UN expert, said football should bring people together around positive values, not around a country committing a genocide.

“We know very well how close Infantino is to Donald Trump,” Mokhiber said. “I’m not surprised at all he would make that kind of a statement. I would ask him to look at his history books and see that bans and boycotts in football have been a part of FIFA since the very beginning.”

Prashar also noted the historical precedents and questioned where FIFA would draw the line.

“Gianni Infantino is normalising genocide,” he told Al Jazeera. “Would he have let Nazi Germany play while they were committing the genocide? That is the question I would ask him.”

FIFA and UEFA did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment by the time of publication.

The plan follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a new military operation to take control of Gaza City, the largest urban center in the region.

Netanyahu said the military has been authorized to dismantle the last two Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi in the south.

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Israel Prepares Forced Displacement of Palestinians to Southern Gaza
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Adinda Jasmine

August 17, 2025 | 06:00 pm

Displaced Palestinian children crowd to get meals from volunteers in Al-Mawasi, the southern Gaza Strip, on November 29, 2024. Doc. Shutterstock
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Israel has announced preparations to forcibly relocate Palestinian residents to the southern part of Gaza City starting Sunday, August 17, 2025.

The plan follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of a new military operation to take control of Gaza City, the largest urban center in the region.

Netanyahu said the military has been authorized to dismantle the last two Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi in the south.

According to Al Jazeera, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated on Saturday, August 16, that the displaced residents will be provided with tents and supplies. He said the aid will be delivered through the Karem Abu Salem or Kerem Shalom crossing by the United Nations and international aid groups.

The UN has not commented on the plan or its role in it, but previously warned that the evacuation could worsen the already dire conditions faced by thousands of families in Gaza City.

The Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas, condemned Israel’s move, calling it part of a brutal campaign to seize Gaza City and a blatant violation of international law.

“Forcing people to flee amidst starvation, massacres, and displacement is an ongoing crime against humanity. Criminal behaviour in Gaza is inseparable from the daily crimes committed by the occupation in the occupied West Bank,” the group said.

Ismail Thawabteh, director of Gaza’s government media office, told Anadolu that Israel’s promise of tents for civilians was “a blatant attempt to whitewash the crime of mass forced displacement it has been committing since the start of the genocide in Gaza.”

He warned that the designated area for tents could become “a new blood trap,” similar to what happened in al-Mawasi, Rafah, and Khan Younis, where more than 1.5 million people were driven over the past months.

On Wednesday, Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir approved what he called the “central idea” of Israel’s reoccupation plan, which includes an attack on the Zeitoun district in southern Gaza City where the army’s 99th Division has been deployed.

The Israeli Security Cabinet had already endorsed Netanyahu’s plan to fully reoccupy Gaza, sparking international condemnation and domestic protests that warned it amounted to a “death sentence” for Israeli hostages.

The operation is set to begin with the takeover of Gaza City and the evacuation of nearly one million residents to the south, followed by a siege and raids on several neighborhoods. A second phase will target refugee camps in central Gaza, many of which have already been reduced to rubble.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 52 people across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution urging an unconditional ceasefire in the besieged enclave.

Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 26 of the people killed on Thursday died in Israeli drone attacks while waiting for food and basic supplies being distributed by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Since the GHF began its operation in Gaza in late May, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach the aid distribution points, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

Meanwhile, Hamas condemned on Thursday what it described as an Israeli decision to cut off communication lines in Gaza, describing it as “a new aggressive step” in the country’s “war of extermination”.

“We call on the international community to assume its responsibility to stop the aggression and ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian and civilian facilities.”

Several already exist as outposts, built without government authorisation, but will now be made legal under Israeli law. Others are completely new, according to Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Settlements – which are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this – are one of the most contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for their hoped-for future state – in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

On Thursday, Israel Katz and Bezalel Smotrich – an ultranationalist leader and settler who has control over planning in the West Bank – officially confirmed a decision that is believed to have been taken by the government two weeks ago.

I think that Israel is a few steps from declaring this area as Israeli territory. They believe that this period will never be coming back, this is one opportunity that they don't want to slip from their hands – that's why they're doing this now," Mr Ben Kimon told the BBC's Newshour programme.

This latest step is a blow to renewed efforts to revive momentum on a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict – the internationally approved formula for peace that would see the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel – with a French-Saudi summit planned at the UN's headquarters in New York next month.

Fahmi Al-Jargawi School in Gaza City was housing hundreds of people from Beit Lahia, currently under intense Israeli military assault. At least 35 were reported to have been killed when the school was hit.

The IDF said it hit 200 targets across Gaza in 48 hours as it continued its operations against what it called \"terrorist organisations\".

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told the BBC on Monday that the group had agreed to the latest ceasefire proposal from mediators.

A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said the plan includes the release of 10 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two phases.

In exchange, there would be a 70-day truce, a gradual partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners, including several hundred serving long or life sentences.

Nasser hospital said one of Dr Alaa al-Najjar\'s children and her husband were injured, but survived.

Graeme Groom, a British surgeon working in the hospital who operated on her surviving 11-year-old boy, told the BBC it was \"unbearably cruel\" that his mother, who spent years caring for children as a paediatrician, could lose almost all her own in a single missile strike.

The health ministry said at least 74 people had been killed by the Israeli military over the 24 hour-period leading up to about midday on Saturday.

Dr Muneer Alboursh, director of the health ministry, said on X that the al-Najjars\' family house was hit minutes after Dr al-Najjar\'s husband Hamdi had returned home after driving his wife to work.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing supplies, which the group has denied.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas\'s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,901 people, including at least 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory\'s health ministry.
Israel\'s military said its aircraft had struck \"a number of suspects\" in Khan Younis on Friday, and \"the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review\".

The deal reportedly on the cards is an extension of the ceasefire for up to 60 days in exchange for between five and 10 living Israeli captives held in Gaza.

While Hamas has previously rejected a similar deal, they may be more amenable after direct meetings between US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and top Hamas officials in recent weeks. Boehler had said that the meetings went well and suggested a deal was on the cards for a potential long-term ceasefire, prompting a backlash from Israel and pro-Israeli US politicians.

There are even reports that Boehler has been taken off the Israel-Gaza file, but those reports may be premature.