Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has publicly condemned Israel's actions in Gaza, saying the world has 'abandoned' Palestinians. The Spanish manager delivered his verdict while speaking on Spanish radio on Monday. 'Every time I imagine what is happening to the people of Palestine, it's that the whole world has left them alone,' the 54-year-old told RAC1 radio. 'But I imagine the people there waiting for us to lift a finger, to do something, and that no one has done anything at all. They are not to blame for being born in Palestine. The boys or girls, fathers or mothers, or grandmothers and grandfathers born there. 'There, for a very long time now, we have allowed the destruction of an entire people. Because they say, "don't say genocide", I wonder what it is then. The people who live there, we've abandoned them. 'I can't imagine a person in this world who could defend this. I can't wrap my head around it. I know Jewish people, we all do, we know people from Israel. I haven't met anyone who would defend it, the images we see. 'And the way the world is set up, be it [Benjamin] Netanyahu, [Donald] Trump, [Volodymyr] Zelensky, Trump again, [Vladimir] Putin, whoever it is, because it's not about siding with who is right. It's that they see the images, and our children could be there. 'I have little faith. Given how the world has been in recent years, there has always been little faith in regular leaders. I believe leaders do intend to do things well, to fix things so people can live better. 'I am absolutely taking the side of Palestine, the innocent people who are murdered daily, because the man drawing this up decides what he decides. Because if he is not capable of solving it through a ceasefire, gesture, the symbolism you mentioned, and only through force. One has extremely powerful weapons and the other does not, then you tell me.' Guardiola was speaking ahead of Tuesday's ACT x Palestine charity friendly between Catalonia and Palestine at the Lluis Companys Stadium in Barcelona. More than 25,000 tickets have been sold for the match with all proceedings going towards funding humanitarian aid and reconstruction in Gaza. Around 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7 attacks of 2023, according to numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry. 'It's more than just a symbolic match,' the former Barcelona boss said of the charity game this week. 'These days, everyone knows everything and with this game, the Palestinians will see that there's a part of the world that cares about them.'
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