Life after amputation: Gaza women find recovery through football

On a small football field in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, a blast of cheers and laughter rises above the eerie silence of Israel’s ongoing genocide. On the pitch, one of the few to survive the war so far, a group of young women with artificial limbs pass the ball across the artificial turf playing surface.

They are part of a team of young Palestinian women who have lost limbs in Israeli bombing or had body parts amputated after life-crippling injuries.

Stories here begin with the pain each player endured during the moments of these air strikes, and the long journey that brought them back to their feet.

Central to this has been the role of the Palestine Association Women’s Amputee Football Team to help them physically and mentally recover from their life-changing ordeals.

Since Israel’s war on the enclave began on October 7, 2023, Gaza has witnessed one of the highest numbers of amputees recorded in modern history.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Palestinian health authorities estimate that more than 5,000 people in Gaza have undergone limb amputations in Israeli bombing.

Among them is 23-year-old Farah Abu Qinas, who on the night of June 28, 2024, 23-year-old was sitting in her grandmother’s home when a nearby location was bombed.

Farah suffered serious injuries to her left leg, while her right leg was severely burned. Initially, she hoped that treatment would put her life back to normal, but she was given the devastating diagnosis that due to the severity of the wounds on her left leg, it would have to be amputated.

Farah Abu Qinas lost a leg in a 2024 air strike [Omar Ashtawy/Al Jazeera]

Losing a leg was only part of the ordeal; what followed was isolation and realisation that every aspect of her daily life had changed forever.

After leaving the hospital, even the simplest movement became difficult, and physical rehabilitation became a daily routine. As time passed, she felt her world shrinking within the walls of her home as her recovery moved far more slowly than she had hoped.

All this changed when, during a physical therapy session, she met Fouad Abu Ghalyon, the president of the Palestine Amputee Football Association.

He had helped found Gaza’s team for women amputees and now features 11 players – nine with lower-limb amputations and two players with upper-limb amputations who play as goalkeepers.

Farah soon received an invitation to join one of their training sessions and decided to give it a go. While adapting to playing football was difficult at first, she was supported by other women who had gone through similar experiences as her own.

She now moves with more confidence on and off the pitch. With the aid of her prosthetic leg, she chases down the ball alongside her teammates Rozan Khaira and Aisha al-Abadla.

Although their stories differ, Farah, Rozan, and Aisha have all lost a limb or live with a physical disability.

Their search for a space to regain a sense of purpose, confidence and belonging has come through this football team.

More Than One Story

On November 19, 2023, at the height of the war, an air strike destroyed a house directly opposite Rozan Khaira’s home, leaving her critically injured.

Rozan tried to get out of bed but couldn’t. At a nearby clinic, a doctor said her leg was attached to her body by just a small piece of skin, and they had no option but to amputate it.

Now, she balances on her crutches as she passes the ball to a teammate across the pitch with a remarkable sense of perseverance and defiance.

“The [Israeli] occupation amputated our bodies, but it could not amputate our dreams or our will to live,” she told Al Jazeera.

Kafah al-Fakhouri and Fouad Abu Ghalyon have played a key role in the team [Omar Ashtawy/Al Jazeera]

Aisha al-Abadla was born with an incomplete arm. Doctors believe the disability might have been caused by her mother’s exposure to white phosphorus, used by Israel during Israel’s first war on Gaza in 2008, while she was pregnant with Aisha.

Today, Aisha dreams of becoming the goalkeeper for the Palestinian women’s amputee national football team.

Fouad says that the women’s team was not just about football but also about creating a space where women, like Aisha, could reconnect with themselves and others.

Ultimately, football has become an important method for physical and psychological recovery for them after their trauma.

The team continues to face enormous challenges, including limited resources and insufficient support, but it has managed to survive until now through community efforts and partnerships.

It comes as 1,009 members of the Palestinian athletic community were killed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, with almost the complete eradication of its sporting infrastructure.

Healing Through Football

Dr Khader Abu Shmala, a sport psychologist and coach of the Gaza Hope team, says that the benefits of amputees playing football extend well beyond their physical rehabilitation.

Goalkeeper Aisha al-Abadli has found a new life through football [Omar Ashtawy/Al Jazeera]

Many of these survivors initially experience isolation and withdrawal. Joining a team made up of people who have endured similar experiences helps them regain confidence and reconnect with society.

Today, Farah and her teammates stand on the football field not simply as survivors of war, but as athletes with ambitions and goals.

They may have lost parts of their bodies, but they cling to what matters the most: the determination to move forward in life.

In Gaza, where the war has left thousands with life-changing injuries and deep psychological scars, these young women are writing a different story: It doesn’t begin with loss, but with the moment they chose to live again.

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