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Khan Younis, Gaza – In the ruins of his location successful Khan Younis, 75-year-old Shaker Safi mildly thumbs done fading photographs of his lad Mohammed’s sporting career.
Medals, trophies, squad huddles, and radical photos of young athletes coached by Mohammed present service arsenic a haunting memorial to a imagination destroyed by war.
On November 15, 2023, Mohammed Safi – a shot manager and carnal acquisition teacher – was killed successful an Israeli aerial strike.
He had spent years gathering a bequest of anticipation done sport, grooming astatine schools and assemblage clubs, and transforming underdog teams into section champions.
A postgraduate successful carnal acquisition from Al-Aqsa University, Mohammed was the caput manager of Al-Amal Football Club successful confederate Gaza and was wide admired for his enactment nurturing young endowment aged betwixt six and 16.
“My lad dreamt of representing Palestine internationally,” Shaker says, surrounded by remnants of his son’s accolades. “He believed athletics could assistance younker from despair. But warfare reached him earlier helium could scope the world.”
Mohammed Safi’s father, Shaker Safi, shows an representation of his deceased lad holding a shot trophy. Mohammed, who was a inferior shot manager and umpire, was killed successful an Israeli aerial onslaught successful November 2023 [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]Now displaced, Mohammed’s woman Nermeen and their 4 children – 16-year-old Shaker Jr, Amir, 14, Alma, 11, and Taif, 7 – unrecorded with the achy void created by his death.
The children cling to their father’s past shot and coaching notes arsenic keepsakes.
Nermeen, an creation teacher, mildly wipes distant Taif’s tears erstwhile she asks, “Why did they instrumentality Daddy from us?”
“He was a antheral of dreams, not politics,” Nermeen says. “He wanted to go an planetary referee. He wanted his master’s degree. Instead, helium was killed for being a awesome of beingness and youth.”
Mohammed Safi is 1 of hundreds of athletes and sports professionals who person been killed oregon displaced since the warfare began.
According to the Palestinian Olympic Committee, 582 athletes person been killed since October 7, 2023, galore of them nationalist squad players, coaches, and administrators.
Mohammed Safi’s woman and children are not lone dealing with his death, but besides displacement created by the warfare connected Gaza [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]Sports replaced by survival
For those who stay live successful Gaza, endurance has replaced sporting ambition.
Yousef Abu Shawarib is simply a 20-year-old goalkeeper for Rafah’s premier league shot club.
In May 2024, helium and his household fled their location and took structure astatine Khan Younis Stadium – the aforesaid tract wherever helium erstwhile played authoritative matches.
Today, the stadium is simply a structure for displaced families, its synthetic turf present lined with tents alternatively of players.
“This is wherever my manager utilized to little maine earlier games,” Yousef says, lasting adjacent what utilized to beryllium the seat area, present a h2o organisation point. “Now I hold present for water, not for kickoff.”
His regular contiguous involves light, irregular grooming wrong his tent, hoping to sphere a fraction of his fitness. But his dreams of studying sports sciences successful Germany and playing professionally are gone.
“Now, I lone anticipation we person thing to devour tomorrow,” helium tells Al Jazeera. “The warfare didn’t conscionable destruct fields – it destroyed our futures.”
When helium looks astatine the charred stadium, helium doesn’t spot a impermanent displacement.
“This was not collateral damage. It was systematic. It’s similar they privation to erase everything astir america – adjacent our games.”
Playing organised shot retired successful the unfastened is not a applicable enactment successful Gaza anymore. Instead, Yousef Abu Shawarib does fittingness grooming successful a structure astatine Khan Younis Stadium [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]Hope beneath the rubble
Still, similar the patches of writer that survived the blasts, immoderate anticipation remains.
Shadi Abu Armanah, caput manager of Palestine’s amputee shot team, had devised a six-month program to resume training.
His 25 players and 5 coaching unit had been gathering momentum earlier the warfare connected Gaza. The squad had competed internationally, including successful a 2019 tourney successful France. Before hostilities began, they were preparing for different lawsuit successful November 2023 and an lawsuit successful West Asia acceptable for October 2025.
“Now, we can’t adjacent gather,” Shadi says. “Every installation we utilized has been destroyed. The players person mislaid their homes. Most person mislaid loved ones. There’s obscurity harmless to bid – nary gear, nary field, nothing.”
Supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the squad had erstwhile symbolised resilience. Training sessions were much than drills – they were lifelines. “For amputees, athletics was a 2nd chance,” Shadi says. “Now they are conscionable trying to survive.”
Shadi himself is displaced. His home, too, was bombed. “The clubs I worked for are gone. The players are either dormant oregon scattered. If the warfare ends today, we’ll inactive request years to bring backmost adjacent a fraction of what was lost.”
He adds, “I coached crossed galore clubs and divisions. Almost each their facilities person been reduced to rubble. It’s not conscionable a intermission – it’s erasure.”
This multi-purpose sporting venue successful Khan Younis utilized to big hoops and volleyball games until the Israeli subject demolished it by aerial bombing. In much caller times, it was repurposed arsenic a exile shelter, but has since been evacuated [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]A systematic erasure
The scope of devastation extends beyond idiosyncratic loss.
According to Asaad al-Majdalawi, vice president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Gaza’s full sporting infrastructure is connected the brink of collapse. At slightest 270 sports facilities person been damaged oregon destroyed: 189 wholly flattened and 81 partially damaged, with archetypal estimates of worldly losses successful the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Every large constituent of Gaza’s sports strategy has been hit,” al-Majdalawi told Al Jazeera. “The Olympic Committee offices, sports federations, clubs, schoolhouse and assemblage sports programmes – adjacent backstage sports facilities person been targeted. It’s a broad assault.”
Among the fallen are high-profile athletes similar Nagham Abu Samra, Palestine’s planetary karate champion; Majed Abu Maraheel, the archetypal Palestinian to transportation the Olympic emblem astatine the 1996 Atlanta Games; Olympic shot manager Hani al-Masdar; and nationalist athletics manager Bilal Abu Sam’an. Hundreds of others stay injured oregon missing, complicating close assessments.
“This is not conscionable nonaccomplishment – it’s extermination,” al-Majdalawi says. “Each jock was a assemblage pillar. They weren’t numbers. They were symbols of hope, unity, and perseverance. Losing them has profoundly wounded the Palestinian society.”
He warns that beyond the contiguous quality toll, the interruption of sports activities for a twelvemonth and a fractional volition effect successful physical, psychological, and nonrecreational regression for remaining athletes. “You suffer much than musculus and accomplishment – you suffer purpose.”
A lone grandstand remains partially intact successful an different wholly destroyed Khan Younis shot stadium. The venue, erstwhile a fashionable taste and societal hub of the Khan Younis sports community, has present go a structure for thousands of internally displaced Gazans [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]A planetary silence
Al-Majdalawi believes the planetary effect has been alarmingly inadequate. When Gaza’s sports assemblage reaches retired to planetary federations, Olympic bodies, and ministers of younker and sport, they’re met with silence.
“In private, galore planetary officials sympathise,” helium says. “But astatine the decision-making level, Israel seems to run supra the law. There’s nary accountability. It’s similar athletics doesn’t substance erstwhile it’s Palestinian. The planetary and planetary sports institutions look complicit done their silence, ignoring each planetary laws, quality rights, and the governing rules of the planetary sports system,” helium says.
He believes that if the warfare ended today, it would inactive instrumentality 5 to 10 years to rebuild what has been lost. Even that gloomy timeline is based connected the presumption that the blockade ends and planetary backing becomes available.
“We person been gathering this sports assemblage since 1994,” al-Majdalawi says. “It took america decades to accumulate knowledge, experience, and professionalism. Now, it’s each been levelled successful months.”
As the warfare continues, the destiny of Gaza’s sports assemblage hangs by a thread. Yet amid the ruins, fathers similar Shaker Safi, athletes similar Yousef, and coaches similar Shadi clasp connected to 1 unyielding belief: that athletics volition erstwhile again beryllium a root of hope, identity, and beingness for Palestinians.
Yousef Abu Shawarib, who has lived arsenic a exile astatine Khan Younis shot stadium since May 2024, hopes to past the warfare and erstwhile again play shot connected these grounds [Mohamed-Solaimane/Al Jazeera]This portion was published successful collaboration with Egab.
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