KHAN YOUNIS, July 3 -- Salim Khader Al-Ashqar did not die on a pitch. He died on a motorcycle, somewhere in the al-Qarara area northeast of Khan Younis, on July 1, looking for a cylinder of cooking gas so his family could eat. Israeli tanks stationed in the area opened fire directly at him, according to Mustafa Siam of the Palestinian Sports Media Union. The Khadamat Khan Younis Club goalkeeper was rushed to the nearest hospital, where blood was too short and surgical supplies had long since run out. He was 32. His wife was pregnant with their first child, a son he would never meet.

Two days later, on July 3, the war that killed him reached its 1,000th day.

That number does not arrive with ceremony. It arrives as a statistic layered on ...