Israel bans entry for most players on Gaza soccer team

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel denies travel permits to most players on a Gazan soccer that which had hoped to cross through Israel and into the West Bank to play a local championship final against a rival Palestinian club, Palestinians say.

Khadamat Rafah is set to play Balata FC in the West Bank on Wednesday. But without the hard-to-obtain Israeli travel permits, the game is unlikely to take place as scheduled.

“We think that this is clear evidence that this Israeli occupation is cruel but from our side we keep raising it at all the levels of FIFA. We insist that this is our right and we’ll continue exerting every effort to allow this team to do this match,” the head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, tells The Associated Press.

The soccer team’s predicament highlights the daily difficulties Gazans face under a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed after the Hamas terror group seized control of the territory in 2007. Citing security grounds, both Israel and Egypt greatly restrict movement of Gazans into and through their territory, including to other Palestinian population centers in the West Bank. Israel requires travelers such as students and medical patients to obtain permits to leave.

Critics say these are increasingly hard to come by and are often withheld arbitrarily. Israel disputes this and says it grants tens of thousands of permits for Gazans with no ties to terror groups.

Under the Palestinian Football Association’s terms, the winners of the Gaza league play the West Bank champions in a two-leg final, one in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank. The Gaza game took place earlier this year and this week’s game, which had already been delayed for two months over access to permits, was to take place near the West Bank city of Nablus. The winner of the final game goes on to compete in the Asian Champions League.

— Agencies