Squash world champion criticizes Israel’s ‘atrocities’ in Gaza during victory speech

LONDON: World champion squash player Ali Farag used his victory speech at the 2024 JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York on Friday to criticize Israel’s ‘atrocities’ in Gaza as well as US media bias in its coverage of the war.

“Before talking about the match … I have to talk about one topic and one topic only, and it’s the conflict in the Middle East,” the Egyptian player said.

“The atrocities that have been happening since Oct. 7, we need to put a stop to it. Over 30,000 people are dead, 60 percent of whom are children and women.

“Eighty-five percent of people have been displaced in Gaza, over 2 million people. All hospitals are destroyed … we should never be allowing the killing of innocent civilians.”

Farag’s comments came amid growing international concern over the war in Gaza. Earlier on Friday, the UN’s top court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The champion also criticized the US media’s coverage of the war.

“I feel bad for the Americans because I’ve been everywhere since Oct. 7 … and the coverage here is quite biased,” he said.

He also accused world leaders of failing in their response to the crisis.

“The only thing we can do is put pressure with our public opinion, educate ourselves, because this has to end, and end today rather than tomorrow,” he said.

“Please … This is not a stance for Muslims, for Arabs, this is a stance for humanity.”