Mohammed al-Wahidi was organizing World Cup screenings for Gaza when Israel killed him an hour before Egypt-Argentina kicked off.
At dusk on July 7, a bomb hit a car in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City. Mohammed al-Wahidi — the public relations director for the Egyptian Committee in Gaza — was in the vehicle, along with Hamza al-Deri, aged 10, his brother Fari al-Deri, aged 8, and the driver, Ahmed Daghmush, 33. All four were killed. Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital, confirmed receiving all four bodies. An Israeli strike had hit the same street thirty minutes earlier, causing no casualties.
What the committee was doing
The Egyptian Committee in Gaza is the official humanitarian arm of the Egyptian government, established by President Sisi to distribute food, clear rubble, and rehouse displaced families across the Strip. In the weeks before July 7, the Associated Press reported that the committee had organized the initiative to put up screens across Gaza so displaced Palestinians could watch Egypt’s World Cup matches. Al-Wahidi coordinated the committee’s media relations and screening logistics. The match he had been preparing for — Egypt versus Argentina, round of 16 — kicked off in Atlanta about an hour after he was killed.
Across Gaza, Palestinians had been gathering around those screens since the group stage. Drop Site reported that local witnesses said the news of al-Wahidi’s death spread through the shelters before kickoff and turned the scheduled screenings into scenes of grief. Egypt led Argentina 2-0 with eleven minutes left before losing 3-2 to a comeback that Egyptian officials disputed on multiple grounds. The committee’s screens were showing that result as it happened, in the same city where al-Wahidi had just been buried.
It was not the first time Israel had struck the committee’s personnel. Drop Site reported that in January 2026, an Israeli drone struck a vehicle carrying committee workers filming a new displacement camp near Netzarim, killing five people — including three journalists employed by the committee.
What Israel said and what it means
The Israeli military issued a statement saying al-Wahidi was not the intended target of the strike. It said the strike was aimed at a Hamas militant, and that it was investigating whether Daghmush, the driver, had been the target. Dr. Abu Selmiya, the Shifa Hospital director who received the four bodies, said Daghmush was a taxi driver with no known affiliation to any militant group. Middle East Eye reported that al-Wahidi had been attending a neighbourhood reconciliation meeting and was travelling in the vehicle when the strike hit.
The IDF’s account, if accurate, produces the following sequence of events on a single residential street in Gaza City: a first strike causing no casualties, a thirty-minute gap, and then a second strike that killed a humanitarian aid official, a taxi driver, and two brothers aged eight and ten — none of them, by the IDF’s own account, the intended target. The Associated Press described the killings as part of the near-daily Israeli strikes across Gaza that have continued despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October.
The day before
The day before the strike, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan used the official FIFA pre-match press conference to speak about Palestine. A journalist had asked whether he planned to raise the Palestinian flag again after doing so when Egypt eliminated Australia. TRT World reported Hassan’s statement: “If there is someone who has not felt the suffering of the Palestinian people, then he or she has no humanity.” He said it was a shame on the entire world and specifically on decision-makers. Journalists applauded. FIFA confirmed the flag was permitted and found no rule barring coaches from political statements at press conferences.
Hassan was booked the following day for showing the referee FIFA’s own anti-racism gesture during the match. Egypt lost on a controversial Enzo Fernandez header in the 92nd minute after leading 2-0. Al-Wahidi, who had organized the screens so Palestinians could watch, was already dead by then.
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