Portuguese player Samba Cande, who plays for Maccabi Bnei Raina in Israel’s First League, is one of many Portuguese who experienced the conflict first-hand. launched this Saturday by the Islamic group Hamas in Israel.
This was told by a football player who played for clubs such as Sporting and Estoril Praia. morning Post is trying to return to Portugal “as quickly as possible” to avoid a possible escalation of the conflict in the country that hosted him for the second season in a row.
Samba is not in the area of the attack but says he was advised to leave the country “for security reasons”. “Despite the fact that there was about 1 hour and 20 minutes left before the attack took place, we know that the area where I am [Haifa] is in a state of combat readiness,” he explained.
According to international press reports, professional league clubs have allowed foreign players to leave Israel. The sixth round of the Israeli football championship has been postponed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) still has no records of Portuguese people directly affected by Hamas attacks on Israel and has identified 80 nationals in the country.
Let us remind you that early on Saturday morning, Hamas announced an escalation of the conflict, saying that it was going to carry out the “Storm Al-Aqsa” operation. To date, at least 600 Israelis have been killed and 2,048 injured. As a result of the Israeli response, 370 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,200 were injured.
The Israeli Embassy in Portugal confirmed this Saturday that it had declared a “state of war” and a “highest level of emergency” following the Hamas attack. The embassy added that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “called for the mobilization of reserves” and asked all citizens to remain in their homes.