Jabalia, Palestinian Territories: On a makeshift pitch in war-torn Gaza, a young player and goalkeeper block out the raucous crowd and focus solely on soccer.
The referee blows the whistle and the penalty taker fires the ball into the makeshift goal, wild celebrations erupt as the crowd mobs him.
For fans and players alike, Tuesday's game at the Jabalia refugee camp was a distraction from the hunger and exhaustion endured over 300 days of Israeli-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Referee Rami Mustafa Abu Hashish told AFP that football had helped bring “some semblance of life” to Jabaliya, which has been devastated by Israeli bombings and wars, which have destroyed schools, stadiums and homes. He multiplied the families.
In the courtyard of the shelter-turned-school, the two sides competed for a trophy that one of the players said had been salvaged from the rubble.
The game created a festive atmosphere, with spectators pulling out their chairs and leaning against the railings of the three-story arena to cheer.
A group of boys climbed into an empty truck bed for a better view.
“We will play despite hunger and thirst, because we love life, we will compete,” one child's sign read in English and Arabic.
Jabaliyah was hit particularly hard in the Israeli offensive that began in May, part of a heavy-handed operation in northern Gaza – an area the military previously said was beyond the control of Hamas militants.
As the war intensifies, humanitarian agencies scramble to deliver aid and warn of impending famine.
Residents told AFP that there is hardly anything left in the north and what they do get is astronomical.
For footballers, the match was a rare escape from worries about food and water shortages.
They have not been able to play since the war began on October 7, triggered by Hamas attacks, which have killed 1,197 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli statistics.
The militants also captured 251 hostages, 116 of whom remained in Gaza, 44 of whom were killed.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 39,145 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-ruled territories.
“Since the war in the Gaza Strip, we have avoided sports because all the clubs were destroyed, all the playing fields were destroyed, but today we built from nothing,” said one of the players, Seif Abusif.
The Ministry of Education in Gaza says that 85% of the educational facilities in the territory have been disabled due to the war.
Many have become shelters for war-displaced people, as most of the 2.4 million people in the besieged strip have been uprooted several times.
Coach Wael Abusif said he was determined to play in Tuesday's game, despite still experiencing pain from injuries from the February attack. Now confined to a wheelchair, she said she has lost the use of both legs.
“Since I was a child, I have loved football, I love matches, I love playing,” he told AFP.
“I want to prove to the whole world that we continue to move forward with our most basic right, which is to play football.”
