PAFA Builds Amputee Football Teams in Deir Albalah, Supporting 80 Players in Gaza

In Deir Albalah in the center of the Gaza Strip, the association Palestine amputée football (PAFA) formed in 2018 the first team of mutilated players on the territory, and the initiative has since spread across the strip with five football teams supported by Secours Catholique.

“As the World Cup kicks off, Gaza’s amputee girls chase the dream of football (report) The players’ training embodies stories of survival from war, for injuries did not push them away from sport, but rather to cling to it as a means to reclaim their lives and continue their dreams”

Anadolu Ajansı

Secours Catholique says PAFA now accompanies 80 players aged between 16 and 45 years, with training each week by PAFA volunteers and participation in a national championship organized by the association, while Iyad Alasttal, a PAFA volunteer, frames the effort as a way to reach people “pour les sortir de la solitude dans laquelle ils se sont enfermés et retrouver du plaisir”.

Anadolu Ajansı

The same report ties the sports program to the wider conditions of Gaza, saying the project encourages exercise despite “le manque d’infrastructures dont souffre la bande de Gaza, éprouvée par 16 années de blocus,” and it describes how PAFA also invests in public schools to organize football matches in schoolyards.

It adds that PAFA provides equipment and support including “location de stades privés, maillots, ballons, béquilles adaptées etc.”, and it quotes Iyad Alasttal again on changing attitudes: “Le regard est en train de changer.”

The article also describes a broader partnership effort, with Secours Catholique and the Fédération sportive et gymnique du travail (FSGT) launching “Sport pour tous et toutes,” aiming to strengthen the power to act of vulnerable populations through access to sport across Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and France over three years.

In an interview published by L’Orient Today, Elyas Abu Safiya says he has not seen his father since his arrest in Gaza on Dec. 27, 2024, and he speaks as Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya appears via video link at an Israeli Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem on June 10, 2026.

L’Orient Today reports that, during a recent prison visit, Hussam Abu Safiya reportedly told his lawyer that he fears for his life, saying: “This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me.”

France Palestine Solidarité

The same L’Orient Today interview frames Elyas’s question to the public in a headline that asks: “How can anyone accept that their father is tortured, humiliated, and held in Israel without ever being charged ?”.

L’Orient Today also states that family visits remain prohibited and that the doctor has reportedly lost nearly 30 kilograms in detention and been weakened by torture.

It further describes Hussam Abu Safiya as a pediatrician and former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, saying he remained by the side of premature babies in incubators until the very end, refusing to evacuate the hospital despite the Israeli military’s siege.

At the Palestine Red Crescent Society Rehabilitation Center in Khan Younis, the New Nation reports that dozens of children and young adults attend daily sessions of physical and psychological therapy, and it describes the services as indispensable yet critically under-resourced amid shortages of medical supplies and rehabilitation equipment.

“INTERVIEW Elyas Abu Safiya: ‘How can anyone accept that their father is tortured, humiliated, and held in Israel without ever being charged”

L'Orient Today

The New Nation quotes Mohammad Khalifa, an amputee who lost his leg during the conflict, saying: “Everyone here was injured in the war and lives with different conditions, including paralysis and spinal cord injuries. Sadly, most of them are children and young people,” and it adds that Tamer Al-Sharif is recovering from shrapnel wounds that left him paralyzed.

The article says rehabilitation helps maintain his condition while he waits for treatment he cannot receive inside Gaza, quoting Tamer Al-Sharif: “I need medical treatment outside Gaza because I suffer from joint stiffness and spinal injuries. I need spinal stabilization surgery, but that treatment is not available here.”

It also cites Gaza’s Government Media Office figures, saying more than 19,000 people require long-term care, including over 5,400 amputees, 1,500 people living with paralysis, and 1,200 who have lost their vision.

The New Nation concludes that for thousands of people wounded by the war in Gaza, recovery is a long and difficult journey, and it quotes Tareq Al-Hanafi, director of Palestine Red Crescent Rehabilitation Center, saying: “We hope the crossings can be opened so essential rehabilitation supplies can enter, and patients can be allowed to travel abroad for treatment.”