The Israel Defense Forces responded Sunday to accusations that it killed a former soccer player for the Palestinian national team last week while he was waiting to get aid supplies in the southern Gaza Strip, saying it was unaware of any casualties in the area that day.

Suleiman al-Obeid, 41, known as the “Pele” of Palestinian soccer, was killed Wednesday when Israeli forces “targeted people waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Palestinian Football Association claimed in a statement.

In response, the military said that “from an initial and thorough examination, no casualties are known to have resulted from IDF fire in the distribution center areas in the Gaza Strip on August 6.”

The statement did little to convince Obeid’s family, which said he had hoped to keep scoring goals until he was 50 but an Israeli tank shell dashed that dream a decade early.

“This is the most precious thing left behind by him,” said Obeid’s widow, Doaa al-Obeid, clutching the blue-and-white number 10 shorts he wore for his Gaza club, Al-Shati, one of the only mementos she has of her late husband, as she and her five children mourn the revered striker.

The family has few other belongings of Obeid, whose home was destroyed in a strike earlier this year. They now live in a tent among the ruins of a neighborhood of Gaza City.

The death of Obeid, likened by fans to Brazilian great Pele for his skills and goalscoring, hit headlines after Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah criticized a tribute to Obeid by Europe’s governing body, UEFA, that did not mention the cause of death.

“Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?” wrote Salah.

Thousands of Palestinians congregate daily near food distribution points in Gaza, including four managed by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been plagued by near-daily shooting incidents that have seen hundreds killed as they try to reach the GHF distribution centers.

The United Nations says more than 1,300 people have been killed trying to obtain aid supplies in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots at crowds that get too close to its soldiers, but called the UN tallies exaggerated, though it hasn’t provided alternate numbers.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

Obeid kept playing throughout the hardship, his widow Doaa said.

“He used to go training every day and never stopped, not a single day. Even during the crisis of war, in the midst of rockets, shelling and mass killing, he would go play. He used to gather his friends and loved ones and go play with them,” she said.

The Palestinian Football Association says hundreds of athletes and sports officials are among those killed by Israel’s military campaign, with most sports facilities now destroyed.

Palestinian soccer fans say they will focus not on Obeid’s death, but on his legacy.

“Children called him the Henry and Pele of Palestine,” said Hassan al-Balawi, a barber in Gaza City, in a comparison also with French great Thierry Henry.

“This player was a gazelle — when we stepped onto the pitch, we enjoyed watching him. All Palestinian soccer fans enjoyed Captain Suleiman al-Obeid.”

Obeid, who had played for the Palestinian national team, was still playing for his club in Gaza when the war between Israel and Hamas began with the terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, which killed some 1,200 people and resulted in the kidnapping of 251 hostages back to Gaza.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during and immediately after the October 7 onslaught.