European football governing body has declared that no matches organised by UEFA will be played in Israel until further notice due to the current safety and security situation in the country.
UEFA made this declaration in a statement on Thursday.
The statement read, “After a thorough evaluation of the current safety and security situation in the whole territory of Israel, the UEFA executive committee decided that no UEFA competition matches shall be played in Israel until further notice.”
The decision was taken amid the war going on between Israel and Hamas following the deadly attacks launched against Israelis on October 7 where more than 1,300 innocent civilians died.
The casualties included at least 31 American citizens as hundreds of young people gathered at a music festival for peace who were gunned down as they ran for their lives.
Hamas has said it was motivated to launch the attack essentially as the culmination of long-building anger over Israeli policy, including recent outbreaks of violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, but more generally over the treatment of Palestinians and the expansion of Israeli settlements.
Israel has since then been bombing Gaza, after cutting off electricity, food and water, which has led to the death of about 3,000 Palestinians and wounded around 12,500 others, a majority of them women and children.
In Israel, officials said Hamas’ terror attack and ongoing rocket attacks have killed some 1,400 people and wounded 3,500 others.
Both US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have visited Israel in solidarity talks with their counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu and the people of the State of Israel.
