Egypt and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah took to X on Saturday, 9 August, with a viral response to European football association UEFA’s post paying tribute to iconic Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obaid, who was recently killed by Israeli forces while attempting to access aid in Gaza. “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?” Salah wrote in response to UEFA’s tweet, which did not mention Israel, aid, or even specify in explicit terms the fact that al-Obaid was killed. Salah has been criticised in the past with many arguing that he was not making sufficient use of his platform of 19.4 million followers on X and 65.8 followers on Instagram to speak about Israel’s relentless military onslaught on Gaza that began in October 2023. While some responded to Salah’s post with reprimand for not having spoken sooner, many others — among them previous critics of Salah’s cautious approach — praised the footballer for speaking out, regardless of timing. Salah is not the only high profile footballer to take al-Obaid’s death as an opportunity to shed light on Israeli aggression against Gaza, with others, such as France and Manchester United…
