NYON, Switzerland (AP) — UEFA punished Maccabi Tel-Aviv on Monday by ordering the Israeli club to play a Europa League home game in an empty stadium after fans lit fireworks at a game last week.
Maccabi hosts CSKA Sofia on Thursday at the same stadium in Batumi, Georgia, where the team beat Sheriff Tiraspol 1-0 last week.
Israeli national and club teams have had to choose neutral countries to host games in UEFA competitions for security reasons since October 2023, when conflict with Hamas started.
Maccabi must pay a fine of 40,000 euros ($46,000) and play its next home game “behind closed doors,” UEFA said Monday in an urgent ruling by its appeal panel.
The attendance was 1,012 when Maccabi hosted Moldova’s Sheriff last Thursday in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.
In Monday's draw at UEFA headquarters for the qualifying playoffs round, the winner between Maccabi and CSKA was paired with OFI Crete, which hosts the first leg on Aug. 20.
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FILE - The trophy is displayed before before the Europa League final soccer match between Freiburg and Aston Villa in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
CEUTA, Spain (AP) — The teenage girl made it through the waves to Spanish territory. Her little brother did not, drowning in the Mediterranean, while their mother disappeared in the chaos when tens of thousands of people surged through the breakwater, trying to leave Morocco behind.
The tragic story of a 17-year-old from Tangier is representative of the plight of many of the more than 800 minors who four days after the collective push by migrants into Ceuta face a scary present and an uncertain future.
She told an Associated Press photojournalist how she and her family joined the massive crowd that tried to swim around a border fence to reach the Spanish territory on Thursday. Like many, she said they did so seeking better opportunities. The AP is withholding her identity because she is a minor in a vulnerable situation.
She described how she saw Spanish police pull the body of her 8-year-old brother from the water.
She made it to the shore but became separated from her mother, and has spent the last four days on her own. She said some locals gave her food and some clothing, with one woman taking her into her home so she could bathe. She then went to a center for youths run by the government for some help, but found it was full.
“I saw people stepping on the dead,” she said through a translator since she doesn't speak Spanish. “Now we are children begging on the street.”
She is one of some 860 minors who remained in Ceuta on Monday after crossing over, according to local officials. AP journalists saw other minors asking for food.
Those minors now make up a large part of the 3,000-5,000 migrants who have avoided expulsion from Ceuta of the original 60,000 who came across. Spanish authorities confirmed 72 people died, mostly in the water, during the crossing. Morocco reported 11 deaths which are not included in the Spanish total, the Spanish interior ministry said.
Spanish law says that adult migrants can apply for asylum. If rejected, they will face expulsion procedures. The bar is normally very high for Moroccans to be granted humanitarian protection.
Migrant minors who are unaccompanied by adults, however, are supposed to be granted protection and taken care of by Spanish authorities.
An AP journalist witnessed Spanish soldiers escorting an unaccompanied Moroccan boy who was crying and begging not to be sent back to Morocco. A few meters before reaching the border, and due to pressure from local residents who insisted he was a minor, as well as the presence of the media, a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish Army stopped the repatriation and transferred the boy to the Spanish Civil Guard.
Most of the Moroccan adults have either voluntarily gone home or were pushed back by Spanish police. Among those who remain in Ceuta are significant numbers of people from other countries, including Sudanese fleeing their war-torn country, Palestinians from Gaza and Afghans, as well as people from several African nations.
The city’s migrant center with a capacity for 600 people is completely full. Food is scarce among the migrants, according to reporting by AP journalists.
“The strategy is that hunger, thirst and exhaustion forces these people to finally decide to voluntarily return to Morocco,” said local migration activist Ramsés Mohamed Azumik of Asociación Elín.
Many migrants sleep or rest on the beach or hills surrounding the speck of Spain. In the hazy distance, mainland Europe, their ultimate goal, lies across the sea.
Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.
Migrants who crossed into Spain from Morocco gather on a beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
Migrants who crossed into Spain from Morocco sleep on a beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Migrants who crossed into Spain from Morocco gather around a bonfire on a beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A 12-year-old unaccompanied minor who crossed into Spain is escorted by a Spanish soldier to the Spain-Morocco border from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. The forced deportation of the unaccompanied minor was stopped by a high-ranking official a few meters before the child reached the border after residents and journalists said the migrant was a minor. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
A 12-year-old unaccompanied minor who crossed into Spain is escorted by a Spanish soldier to the Spain-Morocco border as the child begs not to be sent back to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. The forced deportation of the unaccompanied minor was stopped by a high-ranking official a few meters before the child reached the border after residents and journalists said the migrant was a minor. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
