Bittersweet Return

Palestinian sports commentator Khalil Jadallah has spent the past three years mourning the athletes killed in the Gaza war. As Palestinian football officially resumed this week, his return to the stadium proved bittersweet. Palestinian professional sports were brought to a halt after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, in which 1,014 Palestinian athletes were killed, according to the Palestinian Football Association.

On Friday, Jadallah was back at Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in the West Bank to call the opening match of the first tournament organised by the association in three years. "A feeling of joy at returning after such an absence, but also a feeling of loss," Jadallah told AFP. "We lost players, fans, administrators and referees."

"1,000 Martyrs Cup"

The football association named the comeback tournament, which includes over 200 teams from the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and refugee camps in Lebanon, the "1,000 Martyrs Cup". Before the game, children carried a Palestinian flag wrapped to resemble a dead body, before unfurling it across the centre circle as a band played the national anthem.

The sport authority unveiled a memorial bearing the names of the killed Palestinian athletes outside the stadium. At the 10-minute, 14-second mark, the referee ordered the game to stop for a minute of silence. "Football returns to Palestine," read electronic screens around the stadium. "Football has become more important than politics today," said Samir Issa, a veteran manager. "Sport in general is the culture of the people."