ISTANBUL 

Kaza Kajami-Keane, a Canadian basketball player, said Wednesday that he backs Palestine amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

"Honestly, we need to come together as a unit and obviously go against a situation where people are getting oppressed. And I think that's a big opportunity for us as a unit, as a community, as everybody to come together and help people that need help," Kajami-Keane told Anadolu after his team NINERS Chemnitz won the 2024 FIBA Europe Cup in Istanbul.

"I think we obviously see what's going on in the world," the 30-year-old point guard said.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Kajami-Keane, who has Jamaican roots, is a Muslim athlete and plays for the Canadian national team.

The Kajami-Keane-led German club NINERS Chemnitz won their maiden European title Wednesday despite losing the FIBA Europe Cup final's second leg to Türkiye's Bahcesehir College 105-95 in overtime.

NINERS Chemnitz completed a 180-179 aggregate to be this season's champions.

Following the game, Kajami-Keane was named the finals' MVP (Most Valuable Player) for scoring 29 points, which was a heroic performance and the Europe Cup Finals' record.

He said the team has been working for this title for the whole year, and separately he previously dealt with injuries.

Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 34,200 Palestinians have since been killed and 77,200 others injured amid a tight siege imposed by Israel, which left the entire population, especially residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.