Deir el-Balah, Gaza – A day in the life of Khalid Mohammed Abu-Habel began with him preparing for classes at a hospital in Gaza, discussing medicine and health care with his colleagues, returning home for lunch with his parents, his football training and his medical studies in the evening. .
Belonging to a working-class family, he lived in a small house with four siblings and his parents. Although money has always been an issue for the family, especially given the economic situation in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade, his family supported his determination and passion – as well as his dreams of becoming a doctor and a footballer.
“For me, medicine is more important than football. I like both, but medicine is undoubtedly more honorable and more important,” Abu-Habel told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“I wanted to study hard. I would spend five to seven hours studying medicine. We would have football practice for two to three days, with each session lasting up to three hours. I only slept about six hours a day.
“But they were beautiful days.”
The “good days” were before October 7. Three months later, lives have been upended following Israel’s atrocities in the besieged enclave, with more than 23,000 people killed in Gaza.
At the start of the war, her family fled the Maghazi to the Nuseirat refugee camp, but returned last month. But when Israeli tanks surrounded Maghazi last week, he fled to Deir el-Balah.
Like most people in the region, Abu-Habel may have to flee again. This time, further south, towards Rafah.
Football in Gaza meant the lives of all those living under the crippling siege imposed by Israel more than 15 years ago.
Dozens of football clubs were part of Gaza’s four football leagues. The matches were generally held on weekends to allow as many people as possible to enjoy the most popular sport in Palestine.
At matches, noisy crowds roared and families gathered in the stands. Rivalries between clubs located on a 365 square kilometer (141 square mile) strip of land have divided supporters and given an extra spark to matches.
The crowd was made up mainly of children, the same children who are mercilessly targeted by Israeli attacks. The war deprived them of their basic rights and hobbies, including playing football in the streets.
With two sandals as goal posts, no set playing time and a poor quality ball, the children of Gaza would find joy in football.
More than 9,600 of those killed in Gaza since October 7 have been children, and hundreds may be buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli attacks.
“Three months since I kicked a ball”
For Abu-Habel, 22, like hundreds of other aspiring footballers in Gaza who have nowhere else to go, sport has been forced to take a back seat.
“When my family wasn’t convinced I could balance medicine and football, I told them I couldn’t quit football. They then encouraged me to continue but warned me not to get distracted or to waste my time.
Just 12 months ago, Abu-Habel and his club Al-Ataa from Khan Younis won the third division championship to secure promotion. In 2022, he joined this club on loan from his boyhood club Khadamat Al-Maghazi, where he began his football career at the age of nine.
A skilled and key player for every team he played for, Abu-Habel gained recognition, accolades and awards wherever he went.
“I was fully prepared to perform exceptionally on the field this season, but everything changed because of Israeli aggression. It’s been three months now since I kicked a ball.
Instead, the last three months have been spent volunteering at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah as an emergency doctor, working more than 72 hours a week, sometimes even more.
“My love for my people, my passion for medicine, and the determination I need to learn and grow as a doctor drove me to work at the hospital. Now is when my people need me most. I have to respond and be there for them.
He started studying medicine in 2019 at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. Today, the university is nothing more than a pile of rubble.
“I should have been in the hospital studying, but the story changed in the blink of an eye. Now here I am, looking at people with blown limbs lying and crying on the ground. What an atrocity this is.
“Even before the war, the situation here wasn’t great. »
Abu-Habel says he is buried in debt from loans he took out over the years to pay for college.
“I hope I can pay them all off soon…if I survive,” Abu-Habel said, choking up at the thought of what awaits him in the midst of the war.
“I am here to believe”
After spending days at a time in the hospital, he tries to help the families in his neighborhood – or what’s left of it – with his medical expertise and in any way possible.
“It’s so exhausting. I really don’t have time to rest. The number of cases we receive every day is incredible, but we must do our best to save their lives. Cases range from war injuries to health problems due to lack of food and water.
“What I have seen in the hospital over the past three months is truly heartbreaking and distressing. Most cases are children bleeding from all parts of their body. The situation is deteriorating day by day.
Even without an end in sight to Israel’s relentless air, sea and ground attacks, Khalid hopes for a better future and to pursue his (football) dreams.
“I promised myself I would work hard day in and day out. The challenges are numerous, particularly professional, but I am here to believe in them and continue my journey strewn with pitfalls by signing my first professional contract in a football club in Europe.
“I love Manchester City and Barcelona, two clubs that Pep Guardiola inspired me to support. I hope to play for one or the other one day.
“Before that, I hope this war ends soon because our dreams are destroyed.”