Bangladeshi-origin footballer Hamza shows solidarity with Palestine after winning FA Cup

Bangladeshi-origin English footballer Hamza Choudhury showed solidarity with Palestinians on Saturday after his club Leicester City won the FA Cup — the oldest tournament of England — for the first time.

The 23-year old Hamza, whose mother Rafia is a Bangladeshi, raised the Palestine flag along with his teammate Wesley Fofana at the Wembley Stadium in London.

Also Read: Hamza’s story set to inspire myriad of children

Leicester beat Chelsea 1-0 in the historic ground to add another silverware after winning the English Premier League back in 2015-16. That title was dubbed by many as the greatest upset in the history of football.

Hamza and Wesley held each end of the flag while they made their lap of honour in front of fans.

Hamza then draped the flag across his shoulders as he went up to collect his winner's medal before lifting the trophy for the first time in the club's history.

For the first time EVER...@LCFC lift the #EmiratesFACup 🤩 pic.twitter.com/f47XF0F778

— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) May 15, 2021

Also read- Palestine envoy to UK expresses gratitude to Hamza, Wesley

At least 153 people, including 42 children, have been killed in Gaza since Monday while Israel has reported 10 deaths, including two children, Reuters reported.

On Sunday, Israel bombed the home of Hamas's chief in Gaza and the Islamist group fired rocket barrages at Tel Aviv as hostilities stretched into a seventh day with no sign of abating.

Both Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the enclave, insisted they would continue their cross-border fire after Israel destroyed a 12-storey building in Gaza City that housed the US Associated Press and Qatar-based Al Jazeera media operations.

The Israel military said the al-Jala building was a legitimate military target, containing Hamas military offices, and that it had given advance warnings to civilians to get out of the building.

Letter to Hamza Choudhury and Wesley Fofana, Leicester Football Club, who used the occasion of the FA cup triumph to show solidarity with the Palestinian people 🇵🇸🙏🏽✌🏽✊@Wesley_Fofanaa@HamzaChoudhury1@LCFC
#SavePalestine #Jerusalem #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/1gSm7tJnH8

— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) May 15, 2021

In what Hamas called a reprisal for Israel's destruction of the al-Jala building, Hamas fired 120 rockets overnight, the Israeli military said, with many intercepted and around a dozen falling short and landing in Gaza.

Israelis dashed for bomb shelters as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire blared in Tel Aviv and the southern city of Beersheba. Around 10 people were injured while running for shelters, medics said.

Hamas began its rocket assault on Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.