The first Palestinian Olympic runner, Majed Abu Maraheel, passed away on Tuesday, June 11, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He was 61.
Maraheel died from kidney failure and an inability to receive treatment due to the destruction of hospitals and medical centres by Israeli forces in the ongoing war in Gaza
In a statement on Facebook, Palestine Athletics Federation said, “The big one is gone. The good one is gone. The Olympic runner is gone. He left from holding the flag and ran in Atlanta tracks crying. He left who stopped the world to live Palestine in 1996.”