FROM OUR SPORTS DESK

STORIES ARE EMERGING from Gaza of a football game which took place between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters on a beach on the northern shore of the Palestinian strip.

Sources say that both sides began their own soccer games during the night which developed slowly into a single game.

“Suddenly, senior officers on both sides realized what was happening and they sent out orders to have it stopped,” says Uwe Charlton, a former Anglo-German soccer star who runs a charity in Gaza. “Then Israel scored and a new order came down from their command saying that the match was to continue. When Hamas equalized, orders from Teheran came down that the game go on. Floodlights were set up and the match went to penalties. It was four-all, and then the Israelis gave a penalty to this guy from London. English? Penalties? Please! Hamas was about to win when the Israeli Government ordered the game ended immediately. I have the ball.”

Spokespeople on both sides are unwilling to admit the football match happened. The Israelis do admit that an English-born IDF soldier missed a penalty in a game played during the Gaza truce, but they would not say any more than: “Hey, he’s English! You really think we’d honestly give him a penalty to take against Hamas?”