Palestinian club soccer to restart in September after Gaza war halt

The Palestinian soccer association announces that it will resume activity in September after a nearly three-year pause due to the Gaza war.

“We announce the resumption of sports activities and the football association’s league beginning September 4,” association president Jibril Rajoub says at a Ramallah press conference.

Palestinian sports leagues, including professional soccer, came to a halt with the war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The association has named the first tournament back the “Thousand Martyrs’ Cup,” to honor what it says are 1,014 Palestinian athletes allegedly killed by Israel during the war according to the association’s data. Israel has said many people described by Palestinians as athletes were actually members of terror groups.

More than 200 clubs will compete in the tournament, including 146 from the West Bank, 44 from Gaza, and 36 from Palestinian camps for refugees and their descendants in Lebanon.

The tournament will kick off simultaneously in the three locations.

Rajoub says the war “created difficult conditions for all Palestinians that led to the suspension of our competitions and activities. But we have not lost our Palestinian national will, nor have we lost our belief that sport will remain a symbol of hope and life.”

Rajoub says the association and Palestinian clubs face tough financial circumstances.

During the press conference, he calls on FIFA and other federations to stand by Palestinian sports and to protect the rights of players, clubs and children to enjoy sports in “freedom and dignity.”

The association has called on FIFA to impose sanctions on Israeli clubs that operate in West Bank settlements and to suspend Israel’s FIFA membership over the country’s conduct in Gaza.