Ex-Palestinian footballer dies in Gaza bombing

E-Paper | July 30, 2026

GAZA: Ahed Zaqout, a former Palestinian national team player, has been killed by an Israeli bomb that hit his apartment in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said on Thursday.

“Palestine has lost one of its best players, he may have been the best midfielder we ever had,” Gaza sports journalist Khaled Zaher said.

Neighbours and medics who rushed to Zaqout’s apartment said he was killed on Wednesday while sleeping in his bed. The 49-year-old was not known to belong to any particular political entity and had never expressed clear political views.

The fair-haired midfielder captained the junior national side and turned out once for the full national team in 1994 in a friendly against a team of French stars that included Michel Platini.

More recently, Zaqout turned to coaching and hosted a sports show on national Palestinian television.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014

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event horizon

Aug 01, 2014 06:41am

Who knows who killed him? Could as well be a Hamas rocket. Who analyzed other one thousand plus people killed? They were also killed by Hamas rockets. Israel could either be innocent or just acting in self defense when IDF killed civilians.

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roger_davis

Aug 01, 2014 09:22am

Tragic. This is so sad.

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Amir Bangash

Aug 01, 2014 12:37pm

It is the emergence of new alliance in Asia and will have tremendous bearing on the neighbouring countries. The new alliance, basically for the achievement of common goals, may lead to new conflicts and likely to disrupt the peace in entire region.

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MIR TARIQ YAKUB

Aug 01, 2014 03:30pm

Once we become a believer due to any prophet, the believers unitedly have to submit to the Creator in toto, 5 mandatory prayers, rukkoo and sajood, total submission to the Creator and become one group in the neighbourhood and achieve peaceful islamic living for all. Read hadith or ask a learned Maulvi, this was the way the last prophet achieved peaceful / islamic living in the neighbourhood, provide an opportunity for the believers to hear the Manual of Worldly Lifestyle for all believers of the neighbourhood to achieve Peaceful Living for all neighbours.in the language they understand. The last prophet did this and achieved Peaceful living from day ONE . This is the first step towards reduction of the state expenses on maintaining Law and Order, a step towards riz ki Barish. mirtariq@yahoo.com.

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Salim

Aug 01, 2014 07:39pm

@event horizon . Really? Really?

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