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Amid the month-long conflict between Israel and Palestine, social media users have shared a post which claims that the two countries will be playing against one another in a football match on 16 November.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What is the truth?: The claim is false.
Palestine is playing against Lebanon in the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers on 16 November.
On the same day, Israel is playing against Switzerland in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) qualifiers.
How did we find out?: We looked for the schedule for the both the countries and came across news reports about Palestine's match against Lebanon on 16 November.
Sports Insider reported on 16 October about an away game between Lebanon and Palestine in Algeria as a part of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Amid the ongoing conflict, the Algerian Football Federation "decided to host all official and unofficial matches" for the Palestine football team for the upcoming 2026 World Cup qualifiers and 2027 Asian Cup of Nations.
Here is a screenshot of the World Cup Qualifiers.
(Source: Google/Screenshot)
On 16 November, Israel's football team will be playing against Switzerland as a part of the UEFA Euro qualifiers, as mentioned on UEFA's website.
The Pancho Arena in Felcsut in Hungary will be hosting Israel's match against Switzerland, as reported by Reuters on 31 October.
Here is a screenshot of the UEFA EURO Qualifiers.
(Source: Google/Screenshot)
No news reports or football schedules suggest a match between Israel and Palestine.
The photo of the match schedule between Israel and Palestine seems edited as we could not find any such schedule on the FIFA World Cup website.
Conclusion: It is clear that the viral claim is false. Both Israel and Palestine will be playing against two separate countries that is, Switzerland and Lebanon, respectively on 16 November.
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