Link: https://defector.com/nfl-threatened-to-pull-azeez-al-shaair-from-game-for-eye-black-wafaa-akila

In each week of the NFL season so far, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has worn eye black that bears the name of a Palestinian child slain during Israel's genocide in Gaza. When he did it in Week 1, the NFL fined him. During Week 2, a league official threatened to remove him from the game.

For the Texans' season opener against the Buffalo Bills, Al-Shaair's eye black bore the name of Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl who in 2024 was killed by Israeli forces in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza. After surviving an attack on a car she was riding in, Rajab phoned emergency workers to rescue her; the IDF bombed the ambulance, killing the paramedics en route. Weeks later, Rajab was found in the wrecked car, dead alongside six relatives. Israel initially denied that its troops were in the area of the incident, but admitted in August 2026 that its military had opened fire on the car.