From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
IDF reveals terror affiliations of 12 Gazan soccer players killed in Israeli strikes
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israeli military provides details on 12 terror operatives killed in the Gaza Strip during the war, who had been identified as soccer players.
“Following an intelligence investigation, it is now possible to reveal the terrorists’ organizational affiliation and their roles, despite the fact that in many cases they were presented to the world solely as soccer players, without any mention of their affiliation with terror organizations,” the military says.
Some of the information was based on open sources, but all of those listed were identified by the IDF as members of the terror organizations.
Meet some of Hamas & Islamic Jihad’s “soccer players”: pic.twitter.com/nRdvM08AvG
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 22, 2026
They are named by the IDF as:
- Mohammed Barakat, a soccer player and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel on October 7
- Mahmoud Kamal Mohammed Ali Al-Rifi, a soccer player and a company commander in Hamas’s aerial array
- Mohammed Mansour, a soccer player and coach, and a deputy commander in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion, who invaded Israel on October 7
- Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Abu al-Atta, a soccer player and a platoon commander in Islamic Jihad
- Abdullah Riyad Abdullah Khattab, a soccer player and member of Islamic Jihad’s anti-tank missile array
- Mohammed Sami Mohammed Khattab, a FIFA international referee and a member of Islamic Jihad in central Gaza
- Ali Mahmoud Ahmed al-Kurd, a soccer player and coach, and platoon commander in Islamic Jihad in Rafah
- Mohammed Imad Atta Hassoun, a soccer player and a Hamas terrorist who invaded Israel on October 7
- Tarek Ziad Hussein al-Hour, a soccer player and member of Hamas’s military wing
- Mohammed Ziad Hussein al-Hour, a soccer player and platoon commander in Hamas’s military wing in Nuseirat
- Mahmoud Osama al-Jazzar, a soccer player and Islamic Jihad operative
- Mohammed Nidal Mohammed al-Hawajri, a soccer player and commander in Hamas’s military wing in Nuseirat
The military says there has been a “false campaign portraying the IDF as deliberately targeting members of the soccer community, which was created as part of a broader effort promoted by various actors against the State of Israel, accompanies other false narratives advanced throughout the war.”
“In those campaigns, Palestinian terrorists struck and eliminated by the IDF were presented as journalists, humanitarian aid workers and other civilian professionals, while their involvement in terrorist activity was deliberately concealed to promote false claims that they had been targeted because of their civilian professions,” the army adds.
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