A national collective effort is currently ongoing to locate the whereabouts of Bahamian basketball player Zane Knowles, who has been stranded in Israel as the conflict between that country’s military and Palestinian group Hamas rages.

There have been thousand of casualties from both sides since the conflict erupted on Saturday after Hamas reportedly fired more than 3000 rockets into Israel killing hundreds of civilians.

The 31-year-old Knowles, who plays for Bulgarian professional team CSKA Sofia, was reportedly in Israel with the team with the conflict began. Since then, flights in and out of Israel have been grounded. According Eugene Horton, President of the Bahamas Basketball Federation, after the player declared himself safe early on in the conflict they have been unable to locate him in order to determine if his status has changed.

“One of the players had made contact on Instagram a few days ago and I think he had said he was safe at that time. Foreign affairs, government and the basketball community had been trying to touch base to make sure he’s good but have been unsuccessful so far,” Horton told Sportsmax.TV.

“We are not sure what’s going on. We’re following the news with the happenings over there but the main thing right now is to locate him, find out his circumstances and see how best we can assist in getting him to safety.”

Horton indicated that all the stakeholders in the Bahamas have been working together to try and locate the player and ensure his safety.

“Once we locate him, we will put an action plan together to get him home or to another country,” the BBF president said.

“We continue reaching out to national team coaches, players to see if anybody is getting any news of his whereabouts.”

Alan Pardew has quit his role as CSKA Sofia boss after several of the club's players were subjected to racist abuse by their own fans.

Pardew initially joined the Bulgarian club in an advisory capacity in 2020 but moved into the dugout after Stoycho Mladenov's resignation this April.

But the former Newcastle United boss has now left the club after four CSKA black players had bananas thrown at them by their own fans before a game against Botev Plovdiv last month, one week on from losing the Bulgarian cup final to fierce rivals Levski Sofia.

In a statement released on the club's website, Pardew said: "First, I want to thank all the real CSKA fans for their support and passion for the club.

"It was a privilege for me to be a part of and to serve this club. Unfortunately, my time here is over. 

"The events before and after the match with Botev were not acceptable for me, for my assistant Alex Dyer, or for our players. The reason no one gave an interview after the match was that we were all very outraged by the situation that had escalated.

"Our players decided to play only out of loyalty and to protect the club. The small group of organised racist fans who tried to sabotage this match is not what I want to lead and represent the team in front of. 

"This is definitely not the right path for the benefit of CSKA, because such a club deserves much more."

Pardew's assistant Dyer, the first black coach at the club, has also left his role.