'This will destroy our dreams': Israel slates West Bank soccer field for demolition

Israel says pitch built illegally in area next to security barrier; residents say Aida refugee camp does not have any other open spaces for recreation

Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the West Bank, with residents saying it will eliminate one of the few spaces where local Palestinian children are able to run and play.

“If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field. The camp does not have spaces,” said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls’ soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.

The military issued a demolition order for the soccer field on December 31, saying it was built illegally in an area that abuts the concrete security barrier wall that Israel built in the West Bank.

“Along the security fence, a seizure order and a construction prohibition order are in effect; therefore, the construction in the area was carried out unlawfully,” the military said in a statement.

Mohammad Abu Srour, an administrator at Aida Youth Center, which manages the field, said the military gave them seven days to demolish the field.

The military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves. If they do not act, the military steps in to destroy the structure in question and then sends the Palestinians a bill for the costs.

Palestinian boys take part in a soccer practice session at a pitch next to Israel’s security barrier in Aida refugee camp, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, December 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

According to Abu Srour, Israel’s military told residents when delivering the demolition order that the soccer field represented a threat to the security barrier and to Israelis.

“I do not know how this is possible,” he said.

Israel constructed the barrier in the West Bank at the height of the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s, in a bid to keep out a wave of suicide bombers. Some 1,000 Israelis were killed by terrorists during the Second Intifada, mostly civilians.

Israeli demolitions have drawn widespread international criticism and coincide with heightened fears among Palestinians of an organized effort by Israel to formally annex the West Bank, an area captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Israel accelerated demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps in early 2025, leading to the displacement of 32,000 residents of camps in the central and northern West Bank. Human Rights Watch has called the demolitions a war crime. Israel has said they are intended to disrupt terror activity.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas massacre in Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.

A displaced Palestinian youth dives for the ball during a training session at the Aida Refugee Camp’s football pitch, next to the Israeli security barrier outside Bethlehem in the West Bank, on December 16, 2025, a few weeks after an Israeli military decision to demolish the field. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the war started, according to the PA health ministry. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 65 civilians and Israeli security personnel have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes during raids in Palestinian cities in the West Bank.

The same period has also seen a major surge in attacks by settler extremists on Palestinians and their property across the West Bank. The IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents.