On Tuesday, football fans in Kuwait’s Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium let off steam during a World Cup qualifier. Palestinian flags and the black-and-white keffiyeh scarf flew high in the air.
The 60,000-seat stadium was packed with Palestinians and people who support them. It was Palestine’s first game in front of fans since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
“We care about Palestine. “Young and old came to the stadium to cheer,” Anfal Al-Azmi, a 45-year-old Kuwaiti woman, told AFP.
Harry Souttar’s goal in the 18th minute was all that divided the teams. Australia won 1-0, and the rest of the play on the pitch was pretty much unimportant.
Officials in Israel say that it happened about six weeks after an attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7 in which Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages.
Israel has launched a fierce air and ground attack on Gaza in response to its threat to destroy Hamas. The health office for Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says the attack has killed more than 13,300 people.
“The game doesn’t matter to us.” “We came to bring a message,” an Ashkelon-based Palestinian man named Wael Youssef Labbad, 40, said.
“We, the Palestinian people, are always present with the keffiyeh and the flag.”
The game took place in a different city than Ramallah in the West Bank because of the war, and the red, black, white, and green flag of Palestine was flying everywhere. Many fans wore the traditional keffiyehs and shouted.
Others held up “Free Gaza” signs and pictures of keys to represent the homes that Palestinians lost when Israel was made in 1948.
The players from Australia will give some of their match fee to help people in Gaza, where the situation was called “horrific” by the visiting coach, Graham Arnold.
Many of the fans were not Palestinian; they were from other parts of the oil-rich Gulf country.
It’s like Kuwait and Palestine are one. “Today we are guests of Palestine on their land,” 36-year-old Kuwaiti Ahmed Al-Anezi, who was wearing a keffiyeh and carrying the Palestinian flag.
“Today I and my entire family came to provide support to the Palestinian people and to consolidate the first Arab cause in the souls of my children.”
Yahya Shaher, 18, a Syrian college student, said, “We are here to help our brothers.” We are all in it together, and we will win.”