In the World Cup finals, a 30-minute overtime and a kick-off decide the outcome of a game that remains tied at the end of the 90-minute regulation play.
In journalism, when covering the killing of FIFA-linked officials and other soccer figures linked to designated terror groups, there is no comparable time-bound “overtime.” Media outlets are duty bound to revisit the facts when new information emerges even years after publishing disputed claims about Israel’s killing of ostensibly innocent athletes.
In a June 23, 2024 article, “Palestinian player and family killed in Israeli strike in Gaza,” Reuters reported in English and in Arabic:
Palestinian soccer player Ahmad Abu al-Atta and his family were killed in their home by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) said.
Abu al-Atta, 34, who played as a defender for the Gaza Strip team Al-Ahly Gaza, died along with his wife Ruba Esmael Abu al-Atta, a medical professional, and their two children after the airstrike hit their home in Gaza City, the PFA said in a statement released on Saturday.
Later, the article continued:
More than 300 athletes, referees and sports officials have been killed since the start of the conflict in Gaza in October 2023 with all sports facilities in Gaza demolished, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub said this month.
They also included soccer player Mohammed Barakat, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in March, and FIFA International Assistant Referee Mohammed Khattab, who was killed along with his wife and four children in an Israeli assault in the Gazan neighbourhood of Deir Al Balah in February.
More than two years later, on July 22, 2026, Israeli military’s announced that mourning notices published by designated terror groups confirmed that soccer players and officials it had killed — including several of those noted in Reuters’ June 2024 article — were affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Ahmad Abu Al-Atta, soccer defender by day, and Islamic Jihad platoon commander by night (IDF composite features, at right, the terror group’s mourning notice)
About Al-Ahly defender Abu al-Atta, the Israeli military revealed his off-field activities of a more offensive nature:
Ahmed Abu al-Atta played as a defender for several clubs in Gaza, including Ittihad Al-Shuja’iyya, Al-Tuffah, and Al-Ahli Gaza. Abu al-Atta was presented as an innocent soccer player, however, in June 2026, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad published his name and photograph, identifying him as a platoon commander in its military wing.
Designated terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad has also released a mourning poster claiming referee Mohammed Khattab as one of their own, reproduced below.
Here’s what the Israel Defense Forces announcement says about Khattab, the FIFA referee-cum-terrorist:
Mohammed Sami Mohammed Khattab was an international assistant referee. He participated in the West Asian Championship and officiated international matches. He was presented as an innocent soccer player, but in reality was a terrorist in the Islamic Jihad’s Central Camps Brigade.
He, too, was honored with an Islamic Jihad mourning notice (at left).
In addition, in a more comprehensive announcement distributed to journalists, the Israeli military shared details about additional soccer figures it says were linked to terror.
About the aforementioned Mohammed Barakat, the Israel Defense Forces maintained that he was an Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who infiltrated Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre.
As of this writing, Reuters has yet to update its readers that soccer figures Ahmed Abu al-Atta, Mohammed Sami Mohammed Khattab and Mohammed Barakat, whom Reuters previously misidentified as wholesome athletes, are confirmed terror operatives (in the case of the former two), and a reported terrorist (in the the case of the latter.) When it comes to correcting the record about terror activity, the journalistic clock does not run out.