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Palestinian football team set for its first test at Asian Cup
Palestine's Musab Battat (right) and Ismail Alamour compete for the ball with Japan's Yuto Nagatomo (centre) during the AFC Asia Cup soccer match between Japan and Palestine in Newcastle, Australia, January 12, 2014
TODAY marked 100 days of Israel’s latest brutal and relentless bombardment of Gaza, reducing the small enclave to rubble, displacing almost 90 per cent of its citizens and killing well over 23,000 Palestinians.
One of those victims was 42-year-old footballer coach Hani al-Masdar, a prominent figure who coached Palestine’s Olympic football team.
The coach’s premature and violent death has made Palestine’s presence in football’s Asian Cup ever more poignant and heart-wrenching.
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