IRELAND'S home Nations League fixture with Israel will now be played in Serbia after being moved from Dublin.
The game set for October 4 will now take place at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola and will be played behind closed doors.
Earlier this month, the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) sparked outrage when they confirmed the game would be played away from the Aviva Stadium after UEFA approved a request to move the fixture to a neutral venue.
The decision was an unpopular one to say the least and pressure to boycott the fixture built after protests took place outside the Dail, while May's friendly with Qatar was twice disrupted when tennis balls featuring the Palestine flag were thrown onto the pitch.
A 'Stop the Game' campaign has also been launched by the group Irish Sport for Palestine.
Despite having faced calls to boycott the games, the FAI insisted it will fulfil the fixtures as pulling out of the matches would have "a profound impact on the whole of Irish football".
The result of not fulfilling the games would be the forfeiture of six points which could lead to relegation to League C in the Nations League and an impact on the team's UEFA and FIFA rankings, highlighting "the converse of these impacts would apply to Israel", increasing their chances of Nations League promotion and Euro 2028 qualification.
In a statement confirming the game would be moved, the FAI quoted a statement from the Palestine FA saying that it "affirms its respect for the decision" made by the FAI to move the game to a neutral venue.
However, the Palestine FA later released a contradictory statement of its own calling their wishes to "clarify" that it has not issued any statement "endorsing, approving or supporting the decision to proceed with the match".
"Any interpretation suggesting the PFA has given its blessing to the fixture does not accurately reflect our position," it said.
Poignantly, the fixture would be set just days prior to the anniversary of three years of constant Israeli attacks since their military campaign launched in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
United Nations figures claim that since the attack at least 73,035 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,280 children.
The same week has seen outrage from the UN calling for Israel to cease their attacks after they evidently declared that the state was deliberately targeting children in their war efforts.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission.
“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.”
Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives.
Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts.
A UN statement also continued to condemn the use of sexual violence against Palestinian children.
"Israeli security forces have also used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered, and intergenerational pattern of Israeli occupation and hostilities."
Prior to the friendly games with Qatar and Canada last month. Ireland captain Seamus Coleman insisted questions on whether they should face Israel in the upcoming Nations League "should not have landed on our toes" and he "knows the difference between right and wrong" on the issue, citing his own personal disgust at seeing the horrors unfold in Palestine.
The reverse fixture will be played at the Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen in Hungary on September 27.
