FEMALE BOXERS TAKE IT OUTSIDE

Trading jabs and punches, a team of young female boxers — some as young as four — trained on the beach in Gaza this week after their club was closed due to COVID-19. The sight of more than a dozen girls boxing on the beach while wearing face masks caught the eye of passersby in the Mediterranean coastal enclave, where the sport is mostly popular with men. The girls’ coach, Osama Ayob, said the public training sessions could help get more girls involved in the sport. Women make up half of the Gaza Strip’s two million population. One of the boxers, 15-year-old Malak Mesleh, said she would rather train in public than miss out on sessions. Gaza has reported 55 COVID-19 cases, all of them in quarantine centres, and no deaths. Schools, wedding halls and gyms have been closed.