Photo of Gaza Football Match Removed From French Sports Photography Festival

A photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Jehad Alshrafi in Gaza on February 14, 2026, has been removed from the Deauville Sport Images Festival in Normandy, France. The image showed players from the Gaza Sports Club and Egypt's Al Ahly playing a match on a makeshift pitch surrounded by destroyed buildings.

The photograph, one of 300 on display in the festival's second edition, was quietly swapped for an image of cyclists on August 20, according to local newspaper Le Pays d'Auge. Festival organizers confirmed the replacement but said only that it followed unspecified "requests" and that they did not want to "offend anyone."

The decision drew scrutiny from local politicians. Sylvain Larcher, a Socialist Party representative in the region, questioned why the photograph disappeared. Mohammed Abu Srour, sports director at a football pitch in the occupied West Bank, described the removal as an attempt to obscure the destruction in Gaza.

The festival runs from June to September 2026 and describes itself as exploring sport as a social and cultural phenomenon. The removal has reignited debate over how war imagery is handled at art and sports exhibitions.

Alshrafi's photograph documented life continuing on a pitch built after Gaza's main stadium was destroyed and turned into a tent camp during the war. Abu Srour said the image "should be seen, discussed and questioned, not erased."