ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir El Balah, Gaza Strip – 8 July 2018
1. Various of amputee football team warming up
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hasan Abu Kraiem 36, football player who lost his leg by Israeli army fire in 2006:
"Sports for the disabled needs strong physical power to rely on putting your weight on crutches and hands and one leg. The able-bodied player focuses on the football, but we focus on keeping our balance, avoiding falling and avoiding harming our colleagues. So, it requires mental and physical strength."
3. Various of team training
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fad Abu Ghalyoun, Palestine Amputee Association chairman:
"This group that lost their body parts and sacrificed (themselves) must be looked after (by the community). We should be faithful to them and support them psychologically, socially and via sport. The other message is to the (Israeli) occupation: don't annoy us, don't sever our leg. We will fight with football, with crutches, and prove to the world that we can live, not only die."
5. Various of team training
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Abu Shareif, team trainer:
"Our team is different than the well (players). Today, all our players here are willing to represent Palestine locally and internationally."
7. Team talking while taking a break from training
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wahid Rapah 42, football player injured by Israeli soldiers in 2006:
"We hope there will be a league for this game, we hope for a national team representing Palestine, to compete locally, in the Arab world and internationally. This sport is spreading and football is the most popular in the world. The amputee football is new here, but not new to the world. There is a team in Lebanon and we are nearly the second (Arab) team."
9. Wide of training
Nothing will stop these men from playing the sport they love.
Despite losing a limb, they meet to train and play football with each other in Deir El Balah, Gaza Strip.
While some people may question their ability, these players say they have even more skills than able-bodied footballers.
"Sports for the disabled needs strong physical power to rely on putting your weight on crutches and hands and one leg," says player Hasan Abu Kraiem, who says he lost his leg from Israeli fire in 2006.
"The able-bodied player focuses on the football, but we focus on keeping our balance, avoiding falling and avoiding harming our colleagues. So, it requires mental and physical strength."
Gaza is known for its long years of conflicts and instability.
Many of these men have lost limbs in previous clashes with Israeli troops.
But recent events have seen hundreds of people taken to hospital after being hit by Israeli fire.
Since March 30, weekly protests have been organised along the Gaza-Israel border.
More than 125 people have been killed, and many thousands more injured.
Fad Abu Ghalyoun, Palestine Amputee Association chairman, believes that those who have lost a limb during a protest deserve special care.
"This group that lost their body part and sacrificed (themselves) must be looked after (by the community)," he says.
"We should be faithful to them and support them psychologically, socially and via sport."
He also says that by playing football they are sending a message of strength and resistance to the Israelis.
The squad is made of 13 players ranging in age between 16 to 42 years, all of differing experience and abilities.
They are the first team of amputee football players formed in Gaza, and the second such squad in the Arab world after Lebanon, according to the players.
"We hope there will be a league for this game, we hope for a national team representing Palestine, to compete locally, in the Arab world and internationally. This sport is spreading and football is the most popular in the world. The amputee football is new here, but not new to the world," says player Wahid Rapah, who says he was injured by Israeli soldiers in 2006.
Over 50 Palestinians lost a limb during the most recent protest campaign along Gaza's fence separating it from Israel, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health.