On a battered five-a-side field carved out of rubble and shattered buildings, Jabalia Youth faced Al-Sadaqa in the Gaza Strip’s first organised soccer tournament in more than two years, reports the Daily Sabah.
The game finished in a draw, as did the following match between Beit Hanoun and Al-Shujaiya.The scorelines mattered little. Fans pressed against the chain-link fence at Palestine Pitch in the devastated Tal al-Hawa district of Gaza City.
Boys scrambled up a cracked concrete wall for a better view, while others peered through gaps in the ruins. A lone drumbeat echoed across the wreckage, carrying the sound of soccer back into a city that has missed it.Youssef Jendiya from an area of Gaza largely depopulated and bulldozed by Israeli forces, described his feelings at being back on the pitch.
“People search for water in the morning, food, bread. Life is a little difficult. But there is a little left of the day when you can come and play soccer and express some of the joy inside you,” he said, adding “the joy is incomplete.”
Four months after Gaza ceasefire, there has been almost no reconstruction. The Football Association cleared rubble from a collapsed wall along a half-sized field, installed a fence and swept debris off the old artificial turf.
The teams were “delivering a message,” said a Beit Hanoun player.“That no matter what happened in terms of destruction and war, we continue playing and living. Life must continue.”