As Enzo Fernandez’s late header secured a dramatic Argentina comeback in their World Cup last-16 match against Egypt on Tuesday evening, hundreds of miles away in Gaza City, a Palestinian aid worker who had helped make the game accessible to people there was being pulled from the wreckage of his taxi.
Mohamed al-Wahidi, 57, the director of the Egyptian Committee in Gaza, died when a missile struck his car in the Sabra district about an hour before kick-off. Two brothers aged eight and 10 — Fari and Hamza al-Deri — and another man who was in the street near the site of the attack were also killed. The driver was reported to have survived.
“Aid worker Mohamed al-Wahidi, who organised World Cup screenings, killed by Israeli missile before Argentina vs Egypt match.”
Al-Wahidi had worked for years on aid and development projects in the Palestinian territory. More recently, he organised the screening of World Cup matches across the Gaza Strip, providing a welcome diversion from the continuing misery of a very partially observed ceasefire, near daily Israeli strikes and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid.
According to his family, he had been in a taxi on the way to a screening of the match in Tel al-Hawa in southern Gaza City when a missile hit the car. The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying al-Wahidi had not been its intended target, and that the missile had been aimed at a “terrorist in Hamas’ military wing”.
Abd Alkhaleq al-Wahidi, the victim’s cousin, described the aftermath: “We were gathered at a family event when we heard an explosion and were told that a car had been hit on al-Maghribi Street. When I arrived, medical crews had already recovered the bodies of a child and an unidentified man, while another young man was lying on the ground with injuries. Someone at the scene told me that one of my relatives had been critically injured and might have died.
“The first moments after learning of Mohamed’s death were extremely difficult. He was widely loved and had a strong presence.”
Despite the attack, Palestinians in Gaza City still gathered to watch the match on screens al-Wahidi had helped set up. Argentina would go on to win, but for many the night was overshadowed by the loss of a man who had tried to bring a moment of joy to a territory under relentless pressure.