Lying in a hospital bed in Beer Sheva, Ayal Young is beginning to feel stronger. He has a bullet lodged in his right cheek and he almost died when Hamas attacked his home at kibbutz Alumim last Saturday. His neighbours somehow rescued him after he was shot in the face and back, and he is on the mend after life-saving surgery.
“Families, children, men, women … they didn’t care who it was,” Young says. “They were not attacking soldiers. They were attacking people in their homes. They came and hurt whoever they saw. It didn’t matter if it was a soldier, a medic, a baby, a boy or a girl. They came to slaughter us. Luckily we could defend ourselves.”
Young is part of a guard unit at his kibbutz, which is about 3km from the Gaza Strip, and had access to weapons when Hamas attacked. While his wife and four young children managed to survive and escape after hiding in a safe room, Young went out to protect his community. His actions almost cost him his life.
Now Young, a lifelong Tottenham supporter, is struggling to understand English football’s response to the attacks by Hamas. The Football Association has resisted calls to light the Wembley arch in the colours of the Israeli flag or the Jewish prayer shawl. The Premier League waited until Thursday to make a statement on the attacks. It has been accused of failing to issue an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has welcomed the FA’s decision “and its resistance to pressure from the government and other political leaders”.
Young says: “I’ll use the word disgrace that they won’t light the arch, in blue and white, like they did for Ukraine. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have done it for Ukraine but if they stand for one side – they stood for France, for Belgium after the terror attacks – they should stand for us. It’s not like we went to bomb them and they attacked us back. We defended our homes and families.
