Running for their lives: Rudraneil Sengupta writes on the athletes of Gaza

Since the war began, more than 800 Palestinian sportspeople, most of them children, have been killed. Their stories are drops in an ocean of suffering.

Alaa al-Dali, a construction worker in Gaza, used to be on the Palestinian national cycling team. In 2018, riding his cycle and clothed in his national team jersey, he joined a protest against Israeli forces. He was shot and had to have his right leg amputated.

After competitive cyclist Alaa al-Dali (above left) was shot, he formed a paracycling team in 2020 called Gaza Sunbirds, made up of other amputees, all shot by Israeli forces. Al-Dali has since fled to Europe. He doesn’t know how many of his group survive. (@thisisaldali / Instagram)

Ever since, he has struggled to find employment, but he has not given up on his bicycle. He learnt how to cycle with his disability and, in 2020, joined a few other amputees, all shot by Israeli forces, to form a paracycling team called Gaza Sunbirds.

In October 2023, when the war with Israel broke out in Gaza, the Sunbirds had 50 members, some as young as 10. In 2024, al-Dali and a few other members managed to escape and find refuge in Europe. That year, he became the first Palestinian to race at the Para-Cycling World Championships, held in Zurich.

He is safe now, but not at peace. al-Dali doesn’t know how many Sunbirds are still alive in Gaza. Some have been confirmed killed; others are presumed dead.

“Living in Gaza, you grow numb anticipating death at any moment,” he told the magazine Foreign Policy in 2024. “I’ll never forget watching a woman desperately trying to wake her dead children, bombed while she fetched food… this is the reality of our lives now.”

Since this war began, more than 800 Palestinian athletes, most of them children, have been killed, according to the Palestinian Football Association. Hundreds more are missing, presumed dead.

Star footballer, Suleiman Obeid, was shot dead by Israeli forces at an aid distribution site in Gaza on August 6, as he waited in line for food to take to his wife and five children. In January, he had posted a photograph on Facebook of himself and his five-year-old daughter, sitting on the rubble of what had been their home.

Hani Al-Masdar, a player turned coach of the Palestinian football team and of its Olympic contingent, was killed in his home, during an airstrike in 2024.

Athlete Allam Abdullah Al-Amour, a bronze medallist in the 3000m at the West Asia Championships in 2023, was killed by Israeli forces near an aid centre last week.

Former national-level basketball player Mohammed Shaalan was shot dead on August 19, while out looking for food and medicine for his daughter, Maryam, who has been battling kidney failure. Shaalan had been posting on social media, for months before his death, asking for help.

More than 63,500 Palestinians have died in the war on Gaza. Thousands more are missing, presumed dead. The rest live amid bombs, bullets and an engineered famine.

The stories of Gaza’s athletes are drops in an ocean of suffering.

(To reach Rudraneil Sengupta with feedback, email rudraneil@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal.)