Scotland’s women’s Euro 2025 qualifier kick-off against Israel in Glasgow on Friday was delayed for more than half an hour after a protester evaded security at Hampden Park and chained himself to a post.
Both Friday’s game in Glasgow and the return game in Hungary on June 4 will be played behind closed doors, without spectators.
This decision was taken in the context of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.
But on Friday, as pro-Palestinian protests raged outside Scotland’s national stadium, it emerged, shortly before the game was due to kick off at 6:05 pm GMT, that someone had gained access to the arena and chain himself to one of Hampden’s beams.
The protester, wearing a t-shirt reading ‘Red Card for Israel’, was eventually removed before the teams came out for a second warm-up, with the game starting at 18:36 GMT.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 who the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered territory.
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