Iraqi football fans commemorate Jerusalem attacker Khairy Alqam

Iraqi football fans raised a massive portrait of Palestinian shooter Khairy Alqam during a Baghdad match between Al-Zawraa and Al-Jawiyya at the Shaab International Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Thousands of fans cheered as home supporters unfurled a banner commemorating the young Palestinian man, who shot dead seven Israelis at a synagogue in a settlement in occupied east Jerusalem.  Alqam, 21, was later shot dead by Israeli forces.

Below Alqam’s image supporters held a banner saying: "Khairy Alqam, you gave them a taste of their own bitterness."  

رفع صورة الشـهيد خيري علقم، منفذ عملية القدس، في أحد ملاعب العاصمة العراقية بغداد .

كل الحب للعراق الشقيق ❤❤#العراق ❤️ #فلسطين pic.twitter.com/QeYcFFfH5K

— Abdullrahman Yhia (@3bdou_47) January 31, 2023

Alqam carried out the shooting after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians in Jenin and one in Ramallah the previous day. A total of 36 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the West Bank in January.

His own grandfather, after whom he was named, was killed by extremist settler Haim Ferelman in 1998.

Ferelman killed four Palestinians in a spate of unprovoked attacks in the occupied territories, and walked free from a court in 2010. 

Alqam's mother remains in Israeli custody until her hearing at a magistrate's court next Wednesday, while the family home in East Jerusalem is set to be demolished by Israeli forces.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's extreme-right cabinet said that Alqam's home in east Jerusalem "will be sealed immediately ahead of its demolition".

The Israeli government is also considering easing access to guns for Israelis and is reportedly planning to rescind social security benefit rights to Alqam's relatives.