GAZA, Palestine
Turkey will build a 20,000-seat stadium according to international standard in the Gaza Strip to support sports in Palestine, officials revealed on Tuesday.
A member of the Higher Council of Youth and Sports in the Gaza Strip, Abd al-Salam Haniyeh, said the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) would build the stadium.
"The approval for the stadium's construction by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the best contributions Turkey has provided to Palestinian sports," he said. Haniyeh added the stadium would be named Erdogan Stadium.
Haniyeh said, earlier on Sunday, that TIKA held an iftar (breaking of fast) program for 700 Palestinian athletes and donated $225,000 to the Palestinian sports institutes.
According to the data provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Sports, a total of 30 sports facilities were destroyed and 32 athletes were killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza last summer.
Over 2,160 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured in the onslaught – mostly civilians – while hundreds of homes and broad swathes of infrastructure were reduced to rubble across the territory, according to the UN.
At least 73 Israelis – 68 soldiers and five civilians – were also killed during the 51-day conflict.
