Spain’s star-packed squad is bidding to follow up on its World Cup success with a first triumph at the Women’s European Championship. Defending champion England is aiming to retain its continental crown, and Germany is hoping for a record-extending ninth title.
Euro 2025 kicks off on Wednesday of next week with the first two of 31 matches to be staged across eight cities in Switzerland.
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FILE - The tournament groups are displayed on the video wall at the end of the UEFA Euro 2025 European women's soccer championship final draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, file)
FILE - Spain's Vicky Lopez, centre, challenges for the ball with Portugal's Andreia Norton, left, and Portugal's Andreia Jacinto during the Women's Nations League Group A3 soccer match between Spain and Portugal at the Balaidos stadium in Vigo, Spain, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Lalo Villar, File)
FILE - The tournament trophy is on display at the end of the UEFA Euro 2025 European women's soccer championship final draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)
FILE - Spain's Alexia Putellas, Jennifer Hermoso and Irene Paredes, from left, celebrate with the trophy at the end of the Women's World Cup soccer final between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)
FILE - England's Leah Williamson, center left, and Millie Bright lift the trophy after winning the Women's Euro 2022 final soccer match between England and Germany at Wembley stadium in London, July 31, 2022. England won 2-1. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
Here's a look at what you need to know leading up to tournament:
The Euros kick off on July 2 with a match between Iceland and Finland in Thun before host Switzerland plays Norway at Basel.
The final will be on July 27 at St. Jakob-Park in Basel.
World Cup finalists Spain and England are widely considered the favorites. England secured its first major title since the men’s team won the 1966 World Cup when the women's team triumphed at the last Euros, which was postponed to 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Lionesses then made it all the way to the final at the 2023 World Cup but were beaten by Spain. Germany, which lost to England after extra time in the 2022 final, won six straight editions of the women's Euros from 1995 to 2013 and has lifted the trophy in eight of the 13 finals overall. The German women's team has also won two World Cup titles.
The tournament begins with four groups of four teams in a round-robin format. The top two teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head record, followed by overall goal difference and then goals scored. From the quarterfinals the tournament becomes a straight knockout competition through the semifinals and final to determine the champion.
Group A: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Finland
Group B: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy
Group C: Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden
Group D: France, England, Wales, Netherlands
St. Jakob-Park, Basel (34,250)
Stadion Wankdorf, Bern (29,800)
Stade de Genève, Geneva (26,750)
Stadion Letzigrund, Zurich (22,700)
Arena St. Gallen, St. Gallen (16,300)
Allmend Stadion Luzern, Lucerne (14,350)
Arena Thun, Thun (8,100)
Stade de Tourbillon, Sion (7,750)
Germany has won the women's Euros eight times. The only other multiple winner is Norway with two.
England, Netherlands and Sweden — inaugural champions in 1984 — have one title each.
Poland and Wales have qualified for the first time.
The last Euros, in England, smashed all records with more than 87,000 people attending the final at Wembley Stadium and a total of nearly 575,000 fans attending the 31 matches — more than double the previous record. As of last month, more than 550,000 tickets had been sold for Euro 2025. There will also be a record 41 million euros ($47 million) in prize money, more than doubling the 16 million euros ($18.3 million) received by national associations in 2022.
— In the U.S.: FOX Sports, ViX. TSN will show it in Canada.
— Other countries are listed here.
Spain and Barcelona duo Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas headline the list of star players. Bonmatí has won the last two Ballon d’Or titles, following in the footsteps of her teammate Putellas, who also won back-to-back awards for the world’s best female soccer player. Their Barcelona teammate Caroline Graham Hansen finished second in the Ballon d’Or voting last year and the Norway winger will also be among the players to watch. Euro 2022 player of the tournament Beth Mead will be back for England, and Spain teenager Vicky López will be hoping to have a Lamine Yamal-style impact.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - The tournament groups are displayed on the video wall at the end of the UEFA Euro 2025 European women's soccer championship final draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, file)
FILE - Spain's Vicky Lopez, centre, challenges for the ball with Portugal's Andreia Norton, left, and Portugal's Andreia Jacinto during the Women's Nations League Group A3 soccer match between Spain and Portugal at the Balaidos stadium in Vigo, Spain, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Lalo Villar, File)
FILE - The tournament trophy is on display at the end of the UEFA Euro 2025 European women's soccer championship final draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)
FILE - Spain's Alexia Putellas, Jennifer Hermoso and Irene Paredes, from left, celebrate with the trophy at the end of the Women's World Cup soccer final between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, Aug. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)
FILE - England's Leah Williamson, center left, and Millie Bright lift the trophy after winning the Women's Euro 2022 final soccer match between England and Germany at Wembley stadium in London, July 31, 2022. England won 2-1. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli combat soldier saw his teammates yelling in celebration, congratulating one another. They had just struck a vehicle of Palestinians driving near the Israeli-controlled part of the Gaza Strip, killing everyone inside.
The reservist said scenes like this had become common after a fragile ceasefire took effect in October. In the weeks he was stationed in Gaza, he said, he saw soldiers relishing the chance to go after those who crossed — or came close to crossing — the so-called yellow line that divides the strip into Israeli-controlled and Palestinian areas.
“It was a jungle,” the soldier, in his 20s, told The Associated Press. “After the ceasefire, the order was: If someone crosses the line, you shoot them.”
As diplomatic efforts to strengthen the deal have stalled, three soldiers described to AP a sense of confusion in the embattled territory, with a lack of clarity on rules of engagement around the yellow line. Some commanders paid lip service to the agreement, the soldiers said, while privately voicing desire for the war in Gaza to continue. Sometimes, troops were too far away or acted too quickly to recognize who they were shooting, one soldier said — a concern echoed in comments from a whistleblower group of veterans.
The soldiers' accounts are a rare glimpse into what’s happened in the Israeli-controlled part of Gaza since the deal went into effect seven months ago. The soldiers — reservists deployed throughout Gaza between October and January who've since returned — spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared being ostracized over their comments. They said they were speaking out because they were angered and saddened by what they saw.
AP has documented shootings of Palestinian civilians, including children playing, close to the yellow line. And the soldiers said it felt like the killings never stopped amid the tenuous deal.
“To call it a ceasefire is a joke,” one soldier told AP.
When the ceasefire went into effect, Israel withdrew troops to a buffer zone demarcated by a yellow line, giving it control of just over half the strip. Under the agreement, Israeli forces are meant to complete a fuller withdrawal, though there's no timeline for that. The U.S.-backed diplomat overseeing the truce says progress is deadlocked over the central sticking point of disarming Hamas, upon which all other issues — including Israeli withdrawals and reconstruction — hinge.
In the meantime, Israel has expanded control over additional territory in Gaza. Both sides have accused the other of violating the ceasefire.
The line’s exact location has been ambiguous and sometimes invisible. In some places, it’s marked with yellow blocks and barrels; in others, it at times hasn't been indicated at all.
The Israeli military invited AP this week to see a section of the yellow line in central Gaza, near the Maghazi refugee camp. The line there was visible, demarcated by a wide dirt path and small yellow markings. To the east was a desolate stretch of open space leading to a heavily fortified Israeli military post about 500 meters away.
An Israeli military commander said Hamas is active on the other side of the line and frequently sends people — militants and civilians — toward the line and even across it to test the army’s readiness and responses.
“There is no reason for anyone to come near the line,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules. “There’s nothing here.”
The army says the entire line, which stretches the length of Gaza, is now clearly marked.
Since the ceasefire went into effect, more than 900 people have been killed in Gaza — dozens of those close to or over the yellow line, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn't say how many are militants, but unarmed men and children have been among the dead.
Israel's military has said most of the people killed crossing the line posed a threat to troops. But soldiers who spoke to AP and Breaking the Silence — the whistleblower group that has collected troops' testimonies throughout the war — say that at times soldiers were too far away, acting too quickly and under too much pressure to tell.
Israel's army told AP that the area adjacent to the yellow line is a “sensitive operational environment” with signs saying approaching is prohibited. It said the army doesn't target civilians solely for approaching the line and that its rules of engagement require the use of warnings before using force. In situations involving an immediate threat, forces are authorized to act, it said.
It was the combat soldier's second tour in Gaza when the ceasefire began. He said he was posted several hundred meters from the yellow line and saw several people trying to cross it killed by soldiers.
Soldiers shooting or ordering drone strikes don't always know who's crossing the line, he said. Although soldiers must provide coordinates and get approval from superiors before striking, it's hard to give exact information as people are moving, he said. He described soldiers calling in coordinates based on a hunch or the last place they saw someone.
Breaking the Silence says the general rules of engagement are extremely permissive, especially for those crossing the line, with orders in many areas being “shoot to kill.” Executive director Nadav Weiman, a veteran who served in Gaza but not in this war, said distance from the target and some trigger-happy soldiers can be problematic.
He said orders and policies from the military’s high commanders “have created a reality where countless civilians have and are being killed for crossing invisible lines.”
In one account to Breaking the Silence, in interview notes seen by AP, a soldier describes instructions for troops about anyone crossing the yellow line: “eliminate him no matter what."
Another soldier stationed in Gaza for weeks after the ceasefire said the message from commanders was to hold the line at all costs.
“There was a general feeling that human lives are not valuable,” he said.
When it came to demarcating the yellow line, the soldier said his superiors told him it was “too much work," not their job and that Palestinians should know where it was.
Being in Gaza took an emotional toll, he said.
Sometimes snipers fired warning shots at people close to the line, he said, but commanders told troops to do more to protect themselves. The soldier understood that to mean firing more lethal shots.
He and the other soldiers who spoke to AP said troops generally understood, based on leaders and fellow soldiers' actions, that Israel was in Gaza for the long run, not an eventual withdrawal.
An internal report circulated among aid groups last month and seen by AP said that across Gaza, Israel has become “increasingly proactive” with its strikes.
Separate data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said April was the deadliest month in Gaza this year and that recorded deaths near the yellow line or of people who crossed it increased by more than 25% from January to April, to 73 from 58.
This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel controls 60% of Gaza and the next step was to move to 70% control.
The soldiers told AP that on the ground, the ceasefire is elusive.
“We need to stop using this term," one said of the word, ceasefire. "It’s not serving people that want to stop the war.”
Josef Federman contributed reporting from the central Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers occupy a military position overlooking the so-called yellow line in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli soldier occupies a military position overlooking the so-called yellow line in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A yellow block noting part of the so-called yellow line that has separated the Gaza Strip's Israeli-held and Palestinian zones since the October ceasefire is visible in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli soldier occupies a military position overlooking the so-called yellow line in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
