The Israeli military on Wednesday published the identities of 12 Palestinian football players, coaches and a FIFA-registered referee it said were killed in its operations in Gaza, alleging they were active members of the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The disclosure, which the Israel Defense Forces said was based on an intelligence assessment, was framed as a rebuttal to what it described as “false claims” that it had deliberately targeted innocent members of Gaza’s football community. A Palestinian Football Association official in Gaza, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the allegations, saying Israel was attempting to “cover up its crimes” and that most of those named were killed in bombings of their homes or tents, some alongside their families.

According to the IDF, several of the individuals held command positions within the armed groups, while others served as combat operatives. Among those named was Mohammed Sami Mohammed Khattab, whom the military identified as an international assistant referee for FIFA and a member of Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade. The IDF released photographs of Khattab, including one showing him holding a gun. It also stated that at least two of the 12 men had participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel, naming Mohammed Barakat, a player described as a “Khan Yunis legend” who had represented the Palestinian national team, and Mohammed Mansour, a coach and deputy battalion commander in Hamas. The military said the list was drawn from open-source materials and intelligence, and that the individuals had been “presented internationally only as players, with no mention of their affiliation with terrorist organisations.”

The Palestinian football official countered that the accusations were baseless and that the deaths occurred in the context of Israeli strikes on civilian areas. The exchange forms part of a wider information war playing out on the global sports stage. For more than two years, the Palestinian Football Association, led by Jibril Rajoub, has lobbied the International Olympic Committee and FIFA to suspend Israel from international competition, citing the mounting death toll of Palestinian athletes and the destruction of sports infrastructure in Gaza. According to the association, around 1,009 members of its athletic community have been killed since the war began in October 2023. FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee ultimately declined to suspend Israel, instead imposing a fine of 150,000 Swiss francs on the Israel Football Association for unrelated disciplinary breaches and ordering the display of an anti-discrimination banner at upcoming matches.

The IDF statement characterised the portrayal of the dead as innocent athletes as part of a broader campaign by “various actors” against Israel, in which Palestinian militants eliminated by the military were presented as journalists, aid workers or other civilian professionals to conceal their involvement in armed activity. Hamas and Islamic Jihad did not immediately comment on the allegations. Independent verification of the military’s claims remains unavailable. The dossier is likely to feature in future deliberations at international sports bodies, where Palestinian officials continue to press for sanctions against Israel.