Louay Istita, general manager of Gaza’s oldest sports club, was killed in an Israeli strike on Palestinians waiting for aid.

Gaza Sports Club announced the death of its general manager, Louay Istita, in an Israeli airstrike that targeted Palestinians waiting for aid in the northern Gaza Strip.

In a statement issued Sunday, the club—considered the oldest in Gaza—confirmed that Istita, 46, was killed in the attack on the Zikim axis area, north of the Strip. 

A former handball star, Istita had served as the club’s administrative director since 2015.

Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub said Palestinian sports are facing an unprecedented catastrophe, with 774 athletes and sports officials killed since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Among them, he detailed, were 355 football players, 277 members of sports federations, 142 scouts, 119 missing persons, and 15 members of the sports media. 

He also noted that sports facilities in both the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli bombardments.

The killing of Palestinian athletes takes place within the broader context of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, marked by mass killings, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement—despite international appeals and binding International Court of Justice orders to halt the assault.

To date, the genocide has killed 63,557 Palestinians and wounded 160,660 others, most of them women and children. 

More than 9,000 remain missing, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and famine has claimed the lives of 348 people, including 127 children.

(PC, AJA)