Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Gaza City on Wednesday to mourn Mohammed al-Wahidi, a senior humanitarian official with the Egyptian Relief Committee who was killed the previous day when an Israeli air strike hit the taxi he was travelling in through the Sabra neighbourhood. Three others died in the same strike, including two brothers aged eight and ten who happened to be passing by. Al-Wahidi, who was in his mid-to-late fifties and had worked as an English teacher before the war, had become one of the most recognisable aid figures in the territory, coordinating emergency food distribution, helping establish displacement camps and spending most of his time working directly in the field rather than from an office. His body was wrapped in Palestinian and Egyptian flags before burial, and condolence messages flooded social media from people who said they had met him at aid distributions or in shelters.

Al-Wahidi had gained particular recognition in recent weeks for organising public screenings of the FIFA World Cup across Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and the al-Mawasi area in the south of the strip. The initiative drew enormous crowds, offering families — especially children — a rare moment of relief from more than two years of conflict. Egypt's matches attracted especially large audiences, reflecting deep cultural and historical ties between Palestinians and their Egyptian neighbours. He was killed on the eve of Egypt's last-sixteen match against Argentina, hours before one of the screenings he had helped arrange.