Gaza amputees tackle new challenge on the football pitch

Deir al- Balah, Palestinian Territories: In fluorescent orange jerseys, footballers manoeuvred across the artificial turf of a pitch in the Gaza Strip — leaning on their metal crutches for support.

“Today I can continue to play football,” said Islam Amum, 27.

He used to be a goalkeeper, until he lost a leg in an Israeli air strike during the 2014 Gaza war.

Amum is one of 15 members of the only amputee football squad in the Gaza Strip. Aged from 16 to 40, they train every Monday afternoon in Deir al- Balah, in the centre of the coastal enclave.

They even have their own team song circulating on social media, captain Mohammed Juifel said proudly.

“Our anthem explains that the handicapped are part of society, including in football,” says Juifel, 21, whose right leg was amputated after a car crash when he was 13.

Abd al- Majid Abu Milak, 25, lost his hand in an Israeli shell blast.

“The training is difficult but fun,” he said. “I feel like a goalie who can compete.”

Every day the players exercise in a room reserved for them at the Deir al- Balah association for the handicapped.

The team owes its inception to Fuad Abu Ghaliun, a 62- year- old member of the Palestinian Parliament.

“I got the idea of forming this team by watching a football match between Turkish and British amputees at the end of last year,” he said.

“Then I thought I could make a dream come true for hundreds of amputees in Gaza.”

He labelled the squad “the team of heroes” and said he hoped to form a local disabled league and one day join football’s world governing body Fifa.

Most of the side’s players were wounded by Israeli fire.

The Palestinian enclave and its two million residents have been under an Israeli blockade for more than 10 years.

During the most recent confrontation in 2014, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Seventyfour people were killed on the Israeli side, mainly soldiers.

The football squad’s organisers now hope amputees wounded by Israeli fire in recent violence on the Gaza border can also join up.

The health ministry in Gaza says hundreds of the wounded have undergone amputations.

To train the “team of heroes”, volunteer coach Khaled alMahbuh, 32, has sought advice from doctors and studied video clips online.

Organisers have so far staged two five- a- side matches with teams drawn from the squad, attracting about 3,000 spectators, according to Mahbuh.