Deir el-Balah, Gaza – At 24, Nagham Abu Samra was already a sports icon in Gaza.
She had not only earned a black belt in an inspiring karate career, but also earned two degrees (bachelor’s and master’s) in physical education at Gaza’s now-demolished Al-Aqsa University.
In 2021, Nagham also launched her own sports center in the besieged enclave, urging young girls in Gaza to take up sports including karate.
She was a role model for all the girls studying physical education at university, which today is just a pile of rubble.
It was the only university in Gaza to offer this program and was keen to encourage young girls to take up sport.
In January, Nagham died in an Egyptian hospital, succumbing to her injuries sustained in an Israeli attack that also killed her sister Rosanne in December.
She was in a coma after being transferred from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, to the border with Egypt before being transported to a hospital in ‘El Arish.
A Gaza hospital official told Tel Aviv Tribune that Nagham was brought in with her right leg amputated and serious head injuries. The operation was too risky given her situation and she was on life support, the official added.
“His case was one of the most serious. We knew his chances of survival were decreasing day by day, but we had to try whatever the circumstances,” nurse Mohammad Yousef from Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“She was unconscious (the day she was brought to the hospital) and spent most of her time like that, in great pain and shaking.
“We really wanted to help him as much as possible. The fact that she is a Palestinian sports icon and a former karate champion pushed us to work even more vigorously on her case. We knew she needed the greatest care for which we were fully prepared.
“In the first three or four days she was hospitalized, her situation improved. However, she started having an unusual high fever accompanied by chest inflammation.
The medical travel permit arrived “too late”
Standing at her bedside in hospital, the young athlete’s father, Marwan, called on sports fans around the world to help Nagham “get back on his feet”.
“I don’t usually look like this – Nagham’s condition has devastated me and I can’t bear to see her like this,” he said, his voice cracking with the pain of seeing his daughter suffer. .
Amid its war on Gaza that has killed nearly 30,000 people and injured at least 70,000, Israel has also targeted hospitals and medical infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip, where drones, jets and Soldiers targeted the surrounding areas of the facilities, besieging them before entering them.
Gaza’s medical infrastructure was woefully inadequate due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, but was even destroyed by the war.
The World Health Organization says Israeli attacks killed 627 doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other health workers between October and January.
Lack of fuel, medical personnel, supplies and electricity has put Gaza’s main hospitals out of service. Some have become refuges for Palestinians in Gaza, repeatedly displaced amid Israel’s continued attacks since October 7.
Patients were treated on the floor in corridors while doctors were forced to carry out surgeries without anesthesia.
“We had to get her out of Gaza, but we needed a permit to let her go,” said an official at Al-Aqsa Hospital.
“We have called for help from the international community and medical institutions around the world for many weeks, but we have received none. »
“By the time she was allowed to enter Egypt, it was too late. »
“An exceptional woman”
Marwan, her father, was the young athlete’s first and biggest fan. He would proudly call her “the most beautiful karate player in the world” when she reached the pinnacle of the sport in Gaza.
After her death, Marwan said Nagham was “an exceptional woman”
Nagham fell in love with karate as a child. She was known for her agility, gentleness and talent from the age of six.
She has managed to be an icon for the Palestinian sports community, representing Palestine from a young age in 2011. She finished runner-up in Palestine in karate twice (2017 and 2018) before finally winning the title in 2019.
“The first thing I gained from karate is personal strength, which encompasses strength of character and willpower,” Nagham said in an interview with the Palestinian Quds News Network.
His impressive performances, rapid rise and dedication to the sport caught the attention of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. Nagham was in the running to represent Palestine at the Paris Olympics scheduled for this year.
Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, called Nagham’s loss enormous, adding that it would leave a gaping void for Palestine in the world of sport.
In a recent interview with Tel Aviv Tribune, Rajoub said he believes sport can be a good tool to expose the suffering of the Palestinian people and showcase the determination and commitment of athletes to achieve their goals.
He highlighted the success of the football team, which reached the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup in terrible circumstances – “with thousands of people buried amid destruction, atrocities, genocide” – motivated the players to accomplish something for the Palestinians.
The toll of the war on sport in Gaza
In addition to Nagham, Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinian beach soccer players, Hassan Abu Zaitar and Ibraheem Qaseeaa, as well as a basketball player, Basem al-Nabaheen, from Bureij in central Gaza, where soccer star Nazeer al- Nashash, was also among the victims.
Football is actually the one that has suffered the most of all sports in Gaza. Hundreds of players and coaches were killed, including national team player Rashid Dabour, who was due to join the team for the Asian Cup held in Qatar earlier this year.
The Palestinian Football Federation building in Gaza was targeted numerous times, as were football stadiums which were completely destroyed.
Palestine lost its judo star Abdul Hafeed al-Mabhouh, as well as the president of its table tennis federation Mohammad al-Dalou. Thousands of other athletes were injured during the war, which continues to damage sports in the besieged strip.
Besides hospitals, the Israeli army also destroyed other infrastructure from north to south, including schools, roads, communications networks and the water supply system.
The widespread destruction is part of a worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza – with tens of thousands of people dying of hunger and heavy fighting continuing to claim lives.
The UNRWA chief said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was last able to provide aid to northern Gaza on January 23. He described the “looming famine” as a “man-made disaster.”
With each passing day and missile drops, a part of Gaza’s history, culture and existence is collapsing and when that stops it will take a lot of money, effort and determination to revive the sports infrastructures that Israeli attacks have targeted and destroyed.
