Ramallah / Qais Abu Samra / Anadolu

** Coach of Thaqafi Al-Bireh club, Omar Al-Barghouti:

- Restoring Palestinian football to its level will not be easy after losing years of player development

- A whole generation of players lost irreplaceable years due to the halt of sports activity

- The success of this stage requires support for clubs and the Palestinian Football Association

** Palestinian youth national team and Thaqafi Al-Bireh club player, Basil Harbawi:

- For Palestinian youth, sport is not just a game, but a breath of life

** Sports supervisor at Thaqafi Al-Bireh club, Mohammed Sidr:

- The decision to resume activity brought hope back to clubs, but it came at a time when they face great difficulties

- Many players had to work during the halt to secure their livelihood

About 25 players run between orange cones on the pitch of the Thaqafi Al-Bireh club in Al-Bireh city in the occupied West Bank, while the technical staff monitors their movements after a hiatus of nearly three years from official competitions.

Between passes, the players try to regain the rhythm they lost, preparing for the return of Palestinian football to the fields at the beginning of next September.

These trainings come after the Palestinian Football Association announced the resumption of football activities in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the diaspora during the first week of September.

These trainings represent the first actual preparations for the return of official competitions since the halt of activity due to the war on the Gaza Strip and the Israeli escalation in the West Bank in October 2023.

However, the return that the players await does not mean that Palestinian football has recovered.

While West Bank clubs struggle to overcome Israeli restrictions and the financial crisis, Gaza Strip clubs face a greater challenge: rebuilding their teams after the destruction of sports facilities and the loss of a large number of players, coaches, and administrators during the war.

A return fraught with challenges

Coach of Thaqafi Al-Bireh club, Omar Al-Barghouti, says that the halt of sports activity since October 2023 created a large gap in the players' level, as official tournaments were completely absent throughout this period.

He adds to Anadolu that the Israeli military checkpoints and the fragmentation of the West Bank have made it difficult for players and teams to move, and the halt of tournaments directly affected the preparation of new generations, who lost the most important years of athletic formation.

Al-Barghouti believes that restoring the level that Palestinian football had before the war will not be easy.

He explains that a player who was 28 years old when the activity halted is now 31 without having participated in any official competitions, while younger age-group players lost years that cannot be easily compensated.

He notes that the Palestinian Federation is currently organizing experimental tournaments distributed across the governorates in preparation for the resumption of official activity next September.

Al-Barghouti expresses his hope that this step will pave the way for a normal return of the sports season next year if the appropriate conditions are available.

He stresses that the success of this stage requires support for clubs and the Palestinian Federation, given the ongoing economic and logistical challenges facing the sports sector.

The financial crisis burdens clubs

The effects of the halt are not limited to the technical aspect; clubs face an escalating financial crisis after years of absence of competitions and declining resources.

Sports supervisor at Thaqafi Al-Bireh club, Mohammed Sidr, says that the Federation’s decision to resume activity brought hope back to clubs, but it came at a time when they face great difficulties, most notably the high costs of holding friendly matches and the difficulty of team movement due to Israeli military checkpoints.

He adds to Anadolu that many players had to work during the halt to secure their livelihood, while the technical staff is currently focusing on rehabilitating them physically, relying mainly on the club's own players due to the difficulty of contracting new players.

The dream of professionalism awaits the return

Palestinian youth national team and Thaqafi Al-Bireh club player, Basil Harbawi, says that the war affected not only the living reality of Palestinians but also inflicted great damage on sports, as official tournaments stopped and opportunities for competition and development disappeared.

He adds to Anadolu that the halt of official tournaments over the past years led to a lack of competition, no contracts or official tournaments, and players had to settle for limited local tournaments to maintain their level.

Harbawi asserts that his dream of external professionalism was directly affected, because the years during which he was supposed to gain experience coincided with the halt of sports activity.

He expresses his hope that the upcoming return will mark the beginning of restoring Palestinian football's presence, and that he can in the future represent the senior national team and professionalize outside Palestine.

As the training session nears its end, the players continue running between the orange cones under the supervision of the technical staff, trying to regain a rhythm lost for years, hoping that these trainings will turn within weeks into the first official match that gradually brings life back to Palestinian fields.

Gradual return

The Palestinian Football Association had announced in early July its intention to resume football-related activities, including trainings and matches, in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the diaspora, during the first week of next September, if the necessary capabilities are available.

Spokeswoman for the Palestinian Football Association, Dima Yousef, said in a previous statement to Anadolu that the first phase will be only activation, without adopting a promotion and relegation system, and the Federation will announce in the coming days the details and mechanism for resuming competitions.

She added that Palestinian sports paid a heavy price over the past three years, "with the martyrdom of more than a thousand people from the sports family, and the injury and loss of thousands of others, in addition to the destruction of most sports facilities."

Yousef stressed that this requires reorganizing the sports scene, providing minimum support for clubs, and rehabilitating fields and facilities, in preparation for the launch of the eighth season of the Professional League next year.

Israel began its war on the Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023, and the ceasefire agreement entered into effect on October 10, 2025, after the war, according to Palestinian figures, resulted in the killing of 73,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 173,000.

The Palestinian authorities say that Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement through daily shelling, tightening the blockade, and preventing the entry of sufficient amounts of humanitarian, food, and medical aid.