Gaza City — At a busy cafe in Gaza City, football fans gathered around a small screen, perched against an idle projector screen, to watch Sunday night’s crunch World Cup match between Spain and Saudi Arabia.The crowd let out a scream as 18-year-old Lamine Yamal opened the scoring for Spain in the tenth minute. Three more Spanish goals followed in the next 35 minutes, securing a comfortable win for the European football powerhouse, to the delight of the patrons of the makeshift Gaza cafe.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listSaudi Arabia may share close ties with the Palestinians, but passion for the Spanish football team is long standing in Gaza.And yet Palestinian support for Spain during the World Cup is not just driven by the team’s prowess on the field. It has also been guided by Spain’s political and humanitarian position during Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians. Since the war began in October 2023, Spain has been one of Europe’s strongest backers of the people of Gaza and most vocal critics of Israel.Mohammad Attallah, 43, a lawyer from Gaza City, told Al Jazeera that he had followed Spanish football for years. But when the war broke out and left-wing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threw his country’s support behind Gaza, his love for La Roja, as Spain’s national football team is known as, carried a different meaning.“We are a people who love life and love football. Many people here have followed La Liga and the Spanish national team for years, but Spain’s stance during the war made people feel much clos …
