New soccer league helps Gaza amputees cope with war trauma
ABC News
The players race across the pitch on crutches, jostling for the soccer ball, passing it back and forth
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The players race across the pitch on crutches, jostling for the soccer ball and passing it back and forth, their prosthetic legs lined up along the sidelines at a stadium in the Gaza Strip.
They are the first Palestinian national soccer team made up entirely of amputees — players drawn from a population of hundreds that has grown in recent years through several rounds of fighting between Israel and the territory's militant Hamas rulers.
They say the game helps them cope with the trauma of their injuries and the hardships of living in a crowded territory that has endured four wars and a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
"We feel we have something, we can give something," said Ziad Abu Halib, 41, who lost his right leg in 2008, during the first Israel-Hamas war. He hasn't missed a single practice or match since joining the local league after it was founded in 2019.
