'1,000 Martyrs Cup': Palestinian football returns with joy and grief

Palestinian football returned to the stadium this week, but its comeback carried a heavy cost. At Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram in the West Bank, commentator Khalil Jadallah called the opening match of the first tournament organized by the Palestinian Football Association in three years.

For Jadallah, the return brought two emotions at once: “a feeling of joy at returning after such an absence, but also a feeling of loss.” He had spent the previous three years mourning athletes killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, which brought Palestinian professional sports to a halt in October 2023.

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a feeling of joy at returning after such an absence, but also a feeling of loss.

The Palestinian Football Association says 1,014 Palestinian athletes were killed during the conflict. “We lost players… fans, administrators and referees,” Jadallah told AFP, describing the losses that remained present as football resumed.

The association named the comeback tournament the “1,000 Martyrs Cup.” The title placed the deaths of athletes and other members of the football community at the center of an event that also represented a return to competition.

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We lost players… fans, administrators and referees.