More than 50,000 fans cheered on Ihab Abu Jazar’s team with the coach and players ‘shocked’ by the outpouring of support during their visit

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39101717

By Sid Lowe at San Mamés
Mon 17 Nov 2025 03.00 EST

“We are more than a national team, we represent a story of pain but also hope,” Ihab Abu Jazar said, “and we are not alone.” At 8.26pm on Saturday the Palestine coach, whose father was killed in the Israel-Gaza war and whose siblings now live in tents in Khan Younis, emerged from the tunnel and took his place by the bench at San Mamés, Bilbao. Dressed in black, a keffiyeh over his shoulders, he watched 11 men in red, “a team of refugees playing for Palestinians all over the world”, and listened to 51,396 people applaud them, chanting for their freedom.