Palestinians have formed the first youth soccer team in Gaza | War-Israel-Palestine News

Gaza City – The first Palestinian youth football team was formed on Friday in Gaza City to coincide with the International Day for People with Disabilities.

The Palestinian Amputee Football Association is sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Group 20 consists of Palestinian youths who have lost their limbs, either in previous wars with Israel or in an accident.

Players used sticks and legs to connect to the ball when they were trained at a stadium in Gaza City.

The team wants to take part in the Amputee Football World Cup which will be held in Turkey next year.

My life has changed dramatically

Ahmed Alkhodari, 23, broke his leg in March 2019 Great Return March three years ago. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed, and thousands more were injured when Israel fired shots as they tried to cross the retreating fortified towns and villages within Israel, where their ancestors were cleansed in 1948.

About 156 of the injured were amputated.

Alkhodari told Al Jazeera that he wanted to take part in a game outside Palestine, where about 2 million people have been banned by Israel for almost 15 years, and that his inclusion in the national team has added “value to my life”.

He hopes the team will win the World Cup. The group wants to represent Palestine in the 2022 World Cup to be held in the Turkish city of Istanbul in March.

Footballer Ibrahim Madi said the team helped him with the mental and physical pain he suffered from a broken leg. [File: Mohammed Salem/ Al Jazeera]

Ibrahim Madi, 30, expressed his interest in joining the team.

“Living here means a lot to me. It paid for all the mental and physical pain I had ever suffered after breaking my leg, ”he told Al Jazeera.

Madi commemorated the “darkest days of his life” – a time when Israeli artillery fired his foot in 2018 at a border protest in Gaza.

“I spent 11 days in the hospital in severe pain,” he recalls. “Then the doctors decided to amputate my leg.”

The circumcision had a profound effect on Madi’s life until she learned about the circumcised men’s soccer team.

Simon Baker is an ICRC adviser, and he first went to Gaza in 2019 to work on a football break. [File: Mohammed Salem/ Al Jazeera]

‘Good news coming out of Gaza’

Simon Baker, General Secretary of the European Amputee Football Federation, has been working with non-member players in Gaza for three years, helping them develop their skills and providing higher education.

Baker, who had his limbs amputated, made his first trip to Gaza in 2019 to work as a soccer coach as an ICRC consultant. In the Gaza Strip, they also coached 15 coaches, 12 players, and 80 offensive players – of which 20 were selected as the final team to be unveiled on Friday.

“The process went through several stages in selecting the 20 best players to start the national team,” Baker told Al Jazeera.

“Hopefully at the end of March, the national team will compete in the Asia Cup and this will qualify them for the 2022 World Cup in Istanbul,” he said.

Baker wants people to respect the team. “We do not want people to feel sorry for them because they live in Gaza. This is a very interesting and exciting story from Gaza. “

People with disabilities can be the most important people in the community, he said.

There are about 1,600 amputees in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health [File: Mohammed Salem/ Al Jazeera]

This team has made history

Suhair Zaqout, an ICRC spokesman for Gaza, said the club was “making history” by being the first youth football team in Palestine.

Zaqout highlighted the organisation’s work in helping people with disabilities, especially in the Gaza Strip where conflicts and violence have taken place.

“We support the practice of amputation as a means of social and emotional communication,” he said.

Zaqout said the ICRC sponsors five other sports for the disabled in Gaza, including basketball, sports, cycling and table tennis.

There are about 1,600 amputees in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.