Amputee football team a game-changer
SPORT GIVES PALESTINIANS CRIPPLED BY ISRAELI FIRE A SENSE OF PURPOSE AND SOLIDARITY
Afootball team made up of Palestinians who lost limbs to Israeli fire in Gaza is giving its players new purpose. Players aged between 13 and 42 play eight-a-side intra-squad games.
Most have only one leg and play on crutches.
“I was sitting home most of the time, sad. Now I am happy, have friends and we play,” said Ebrahim Khattab, 13, who lost his left leg during the 2014 war when an Israeli missile struck while he was playing football.
“He was always desperate, now after he joined the football team, I see he has hope,” his father, Khalid, said. “He used to spend most of his time playing games on a tablet.”
Fouad Abu Ghalyoun, a member of the Palestinian paralympic committee, founded the team, having come up with the idea after a match last year between amputee squads from England and Turkey.
Within five months, some 16 players had signed up.
“It was hard to convince those with amputated limps to come forward. Nowadays they are calling us to ask about exercise times,” said Abu Ghalyoun.
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.
Regular training
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. Ages 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 Mohammad Juifel said. “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.
Brutal assaults
Most of the side’s players were wounded by Israeli fire.
Israel has launched three brutal assaults on Gaza since 2008. During the most recent confrontation in 2014, more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Seventy-four people were killed on the Israeli side, mainly soldiers. At least 130 peaceful Palestinian protesters have been shot dead by Israeli snipers during mass demonstrations since March 30, Gaza health officials said.
To train the “team of heroes”, volunteer coach Khalid Al Mahbouh, 32, has sought advice from doctors and studied video clips online.
The games, Al Mahbouh said, “give the public pleasure, happiness.”
Ebrahim Khattab, 13, lost his left foot during the 2014 war. He takes part in training but has not yet played in a match, although he has great ambitions.
“I dream of becoming a famous player and lifting up the cup after the victory of Palestine,” he said.