Al Ittihad denies signing Israeli player

17 August 2017: Alexandria’s Al Ittihad club denied that the new club signing, Palestinian defender Abdallah Gaber, has Israeli nationality.

“Our new signing, Abdallah Gaber, is a Palestinian player. He was born in Jerusalem. We became sure that he doesn’t have Israeli nationality,” Jasser Munir, Al Ittihad executive manager told Egypt Today.

Al Ittihad announced on Tuesday signing the Palestinian defender for three years from his former Palestinian club, Ahly Al Khalil.

Munir added, “These rumors came after the club won the battle to sign the player. Many big teams had an interest in the player, especially Ismaily, but we succeeded to sign him.”

Gaber, 24 years old, was about to play in Egypt before when he signed a contract with Arab Contractors in 2016, but the player and the club agreed to end the contract only three days after signing it, according to arn.ps

The Egyptian Football Federation decided to consider Palestinian and Syrian players as among Egyptian players, not foreigners.