American basketball star honors Palestinian journalist Saleh Al-Jaafrawi

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (YPA) – Social media platforms circulated – in the past hours – a video clip showing American basketball star Kyrie Irving wearing a shirt with a picture of Palestinian journalist and athlete Saleh Al-Jaafrawi, in a gesture that received wide interaction and brought renewed attention to Al-Jaafrawi’s biography after his martyrdom.

Saleh Al-Jaafrawi is known as a young Palestinian journalist, in addition to his athletic career, as he was a table tennis champion and represented Palestine in several international competitions.

After his martyrdom, photos of him participating in sports tournaments spread, showing him carrying the Palestinian flag, in scenes that reintroduced him to the public not only as a journalist but as an athlete who carried his cause to the arenas of competition.

The circulated footage showed Irving wearing the shirt with Al-Jaafrawi’s picture during a tournament, in a move that followers considered a message of solidarity and tribute to the memory of the Palestinian sports journalist, and an affirmation of his human and athletic presence, far from being reduced to just a name on the lists of martyrs.

On October 12, 2025, days after the announcement of the cessation of the war in Gaza; Palestinian sources reported the martyrdom of Al-Jaafrawi by bullets from armed men collaborating with the occupation in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood south of Gaza City, while he was documenting scenes of destruction with his camera.

@E.Y.M