Israeli strike kills World Cup screening organizer in Gaza just before kickoff

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on Gaza just before the kickoff of the Egypt-Argentina World Cup match killed a top Palestinian aid official who helped organize public screenings of the game across the enclave, according to local health officials.

The blast turned what was supposed to be a moment of celebration — the live screening of a potential Argentina upset by an Arab team — into a reminder of how the near-daily Israeli strikes across Gaza are continuing to kill civilians despite a truce reached in October.

The bomb hit a car in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at dusk Tuesday, killing passersby Mohamed al-Wahidi, an official at the Egyptian Committee in Gaza, 10-year-old boy Hamza al-Deri and his 8-year-old brother Fari. Ahmed Daghmush, 33, the driver of the car, was also killed. That’s according to Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital which received the four bodies.

The Israeli military said that al-Wahidi, who helped organize the soccer screenings, was not a target of the strike. It said the strike was aiming for a Hamas militant and that it was checking if Daghmush was the target of the strike.

Daghmush is a taxi driver not known to be affiliated with any militant group, Abu Selmiya said.

An Israeli strike hit the same street half an hour earlier, causing no casualties.

The Egyptian Committee for which al-Wahidi worked is the relief arm of the Egyptian government, which provides food, shelters and other assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. The committee also organized the initiative to put up screens across Gaza to watch soccer matches, it said.

Many in the Palestinian diaspora live right across the border in Egypt, which was a key mediator of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Team Egypt's Gaza fanbase has only grown since the start of the tournament, as coach Hossam Hassan has spotlighted the plight of the Palestinian people in press briefings and on the pitch. He dedicated his team’s victory over Australia on Friday to both Egyptians and Palestinians and waved a Palestinian flag on the pitch.

In a Monday briefing before the match against Argentina, Hassan urged the world to do more for the Palestinian people.

“I urge you, I urge all media officers, all athletes worldwide, regardless of their identities, maybe we can convey a collective message that is as follows, let the Palestinian people be, let them exist, let them live a life of their own," he said.

Israel’s military says its strikes target militants and it regrets harm to civilians. At least 1,027 people, including 258 children, have been killed since the truce took effect in October. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in that time.

The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war stands at 73,098, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals who maintain detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel from Jerusalem.

Palestinians watch a live broadcast of the World Cup soccer match between Egypt and Iran on a screen in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians watch a live broadcast of the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Argentina and Egypt in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A nearly 10-year battle for gay rights in Trinidad and Tobago could end Wednesday at a final appeals court in England.

Supreme Court judges in London will hold a hearing on a landmark human rights case that could decriminalize gay sex in the eastern Caribbean nation, potentially setting a precedent for the largely conservative Caribbean region.

The case was filed in February 2017 by Jason Jones, who argues that so-called “buggery” laws in the twin-island nation that date from the colonial era and prohibit gay sex are unconstitutional. Those found guilty could receive up to five years in prison.

Opposing Jones are Trinidad and Tobago’s government, backed by the country’s Council of Evangelical Churches and its largest Hindu organization, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha.

The case has wound its way through several courts. In April 2018, Trinidad’s High Court found the laws unconstitutional, but a local appeals court partially reversed that ruling in March 2025. In July of that year, Trinidad's Court of Appeals allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the final court of appeals in England.

Now, the case is before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and activists across the Caribbean are closely watching the outcome.

In 1991, the Bahamas decriminalized homosexuality, while the U.K government repealed such laws in 2001 in Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Recently, judges have struck down similar laws in Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda. Gay sex, however, remains a crime in Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Jones, who is currently 61 and has been openly gay since age 16, left Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 because of what he described as homophobic violence and discrimination.

“His experience is part of a wider picture,” LGBTQ groups supporting Jones said in a recent court filing. “(He) is unable to fully express his sexuality without being branded a criminal.”

Jones argues that criminalizing gay sex is a moral stance, asserting that “Trinidad and Tobago is a secular society and a multi-racial one. Christian morality is neither universal nor superior.”

While the country’s so-called buggery laws have not been enforced in recent history, attorneys and activists say they still send a message.

“A law of this kind operates not only through arrest and conviction, but through the stigma, fear, concealment and exclusion,” according to a recently filed written argument in favor of Jones.

It asserted that criminalizing gay sex “compounds stigma at precisely the stage at which young people may be forming identity, seeking support, accessing education and healthcare, and deciding whether it is safe to disclose abuse, bullying or self-harm risks.”

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is composed of five judges. They could issue a ruling as soon as Wednesday's hearing ends, although they don't have a deadline to do so.

FILE - A man enters the Supreme Court in London, on Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)