Israel Soccer Season Delayed by Gaza War

No Soccer for You: Israeli fans hold up sign as Barcelona star Lionel Messi plays in friendly match in Tel Aviv last year. Image by getty images
The start of the Israeli soccer season was delayed for the second weekend in a row on Friday following the resumption of rocket fire by Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Football Association said.
Play in the secondary Toto Cup competition, a regular precursor to the start of league action, was due to start on the weekend of July 26 but was postponed by a week, and for a second time this weekend, the Israel Football Association said.
To reduce the chance of mass casualties being caused by falling rockets, Israeli authorities have banned gatherings of more than 500 people up to 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip and of more than 1,000 between 40-80km away.
Many international sporting events in Israel have been called off, with teams involved in European club soccer competitions forced to host opponents in Cyprus, and tennis, basketball, swimming and sailing events also affected.
A month of fighting between Israeli forces and Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip had wound down on Tuesday but militants resumed rocket fire as a 72-hour ceasefire expired at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Friday.
Until the ceasefire ended, Gaza officials said 1,874 Palestinians, mostly civilians, had been killed. Israel said 64 of its soldiers and three civilians were killed since fighting began on July 8, after a surge in Palestinian rocket salvoes.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The ADL reversed its support for Trump’s student deportations. You should too
-
Fast Forward Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block some weapons sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction earliest known kiddush cup
-
Opinion Trump’s new tariffs on Israel are a BDS dream come true
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.