As the Gaza sky rumbles with the sound of distant explosions, Mohamed Hatem’s grip tightens on the frame of a cracked wall outside a destroyed building.
He’s here to do more bodybuilding, one of the most grueling and difficult gymnastics exercises imaginable, as you have to repeatedly lift your entire body weight above a gymnastics bar.
Hatem, 19, doesn’t have the luxury of a bar – only an unforgiving concrete corner that can shred your hands in moments if you’re not careful. But for this displaced teenager from the devastated town of Khan Younis, bodybuilding has been an invaluable distraction during the ongoing war on Gaza.
“I try to escape the scary reality while I exercise,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “It’s like I’m completely outside of Gaza. This is the feeling that overcomes me when I practice bodybuilding.
After more than a year of Israeli bombings, airstrikes and ground attacks that killed more than 44,000 people and starved many of those who survived, the young man took up bodybuilding to help him cope. coping with the unfathomable stress of life in a war zone. .
Hatem has been displaced ten times since the war began 13 months ago, and like many, he often faces severe food shortages.
Its real strength lies in its inventiveness. He uses makeshift equipment in a small room in his grandmother’s house in Khan Younis to work out, such as weights he made from water containers, a car battery attached to a rope, a satchel filled with salvaged items and bricks taken from nearby rubble.
This room has become a sanctuary for Hatem, one of the two million people displaced by the war. His family’s home was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes early in the war, and despite limited resources and constant upheaval, he clings to the pursuit of physical strength as a form of resilience.
“Since the beginning of the war, my dream of building a strong corps has encountered unimaginable challenges,” he said. “But I’m determined to keep going, using what I can find to replace traditional weights.”
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Israel’s war on Gaza has created “chronic and relentless” traumatic experiences as there is no safe place to stay. Gaza and the resources available to survive are minimal. This war, UNRWA said in August, “defies traditional biomedical definitions of post-traumatic stress disorder, given that there is no ‘post’ in the Gaza context.”
For Hatem, bodybuilding is his way out.
“Sport also reduces the tension and terror we live in and the dark picture of our reality and our future. It is a fundamental factor for my mental health and I find psychological comfort through sport and participation with my friends,” he explains.
Taking “gym motivation” to new levels
With Israel’s shelling of the Gaza Strip and the scarcity of essential goods for its trapped population, Hatem is finding new ways to stay motivated.
He launched an Instagram page in April, where he has posted more than 130 videos, sharing snippets of his life, including workouts and meals of canned beans and lentils, revealing the scarcity of fresh food at Gaza. The videos attracted more than 183,000 people in the United States, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, admiring his unwavering drive to bodybuilding. Some of his videos have been viewed millions of times.
Constantly improving himself, Hatem had already learned English on his own during the COVID-19 confinement. In his social media posts, he chooses this language to communicate his message to a wider global audience, aware that many other people in Gaza are already creating content for an Arabic-speaking audience. Its goal is to amplify the current Palestinian experience using its own history as a bridge.
“My page is called Gym Rat in Gaza,” Hatem explains, “because I want to reach people all over the world in English and show that even in Gaza we have dreams and goals. »
Although the video clips focus on his strict daily regimen aimed at maintaining his fitness in the cramped, shared room where he and his extended family attempt to form a sense of routine, he says the purpose of the Instagram account is not not personal.
“It is a national humanitarian message linked to the genocide that is happening to us. Although it is true that it affects me, I am expressing the experiences of people living in war,” Hatem told Tel Aviv Tribune.
His bodybuilding journey, which began four years ago, was encouraged by his parents and the discipline required for the sport has been a positive outlet for Hatem.
He also introduced the business student to the bodybuilding icons he tries to emulate.
“A lot of people who look at my history and my commitment say I’m on the path to Chris,” he says, referring to six-time Mr. Olympia Classic Physique winner Chris Bumstead, who also happens to be the world’s most successful bodybuilder. popular on the planet.
“I can say that in bodybuilding, Bumstead is a role model and an inspiration to me,” the teen adds, noting that he followed the champ’s content long before embarking on his own bodybuilding and bodybuilding journey. content.
“Bumstead is an unparalleled person in the world in his field and an extraordinary professional. I hope one day to achieve what he accomplished,” concludes Hatem.
The challenges of pumping iron during the war
Being a bodybuilder in Gaza presents unique challenges.
To survive the war, Hatem has had to drastically reduce the time he spends on his daily training, from three hours to around 30 minutes.
Due to a severe lack of food that is pushing 1.84 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation, according to the UN, Hatem has constantly had to suspend training for days. His muscle mass had also been declining for months, his weight dropping from 58 kg (128 lb) to 53 kg (117 lb) before gradually regaining it.
His tumultuous and repeated trips also weighed heavily on him.
Hatem remembers the terrifying day of October 14, 2023, when an Israeli plane bombed a location just 8 meters (26 feet) from the family home with five missiles fired over a three-hour period.
“We had times when we were sure we wouldn’t survive,” he says. While welcoming 50 displaced people from the north during this period, they managed to stay alive.
One of the most painful moments for Hatem was finding his house destroyed after a trip to nearby Rafah.
“It felt like the world had ended and our chances of returning to a normal life had vanished. We were hoping to get something back from our house, but everything was gone,” he said.
He refuses to deplore this loss through his channel. “There are enough stories of tragedy,” he says. But with a few basic media tools – a cell phone, a small stand – and despite frequent internet outages that make uploading videos tedious, Hatem continues to share his story – a mix of hope and hardship in equal measure .
“I want to show resilience, to inspire those who may have more resources than us. My dream is to show them what is possible, even in Gaza.”
In the temporary calm that sometimes follows intense aerial bombardments, Hatem goes to a gym in central Khan Younis where he can finally train with proper gym equipment.
“Even when resources are scarce, I still have the will,” he says, lifting bricks and water cans in place of weights.
“I want people to know what we are going through. But it’s not just about our suffering: it’s about finding the strength to live.
This story was published in collaboration with Egab.