RAMALLAH: The Palestinian football association announced on Monday that it would resume activity in September after a nearly three-year pause due to the Gaza war.
“We announce the resumption of sports activities and the football association’s league beginning on Sept 4,” association president Jibril Rajoub said at a Ramallah press conference on Monday.
Palestinian sports leagues, including professional football, came to a halt with the conflict, which was sparked by Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel that launched indiscriminate military strikes on Gaza killing tens of thousands of Palestinians including women, children and the elderly.
The association has named the first tournament back the “Thousand Martyrs’ Cup”, to honour the 1,014 Palestinian athletes killed by Israel during the war according to the association’s data.
More than 200 clubs will compete in the tournament, including 146 from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 44 from Gaza, and 36 from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
The tournament will kick off simultaneously in the three locations.
Rajoub said the war “created difficult conditions for all Palestinians that led to the suspension of our competitions and activities”.
“But we have not lost our Palestinian national will, nor have we lost our belief that sport will remain a symbol of hope and life.” Rajoub said the association and Palestinian clubs faced tough financial circumstances.
During the press conference, he called on FIFA and other federations to stand by Palestinian sports and to protect the rights of players, clubs and children to enjoy sports in “freedom and dignity”.
The association previously issued a statement regarding FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s now-withdrawn plan to open tournaments to private investors, saying “many today are questioning FIFA’s commercial direction”.
“But for Palestine, the issue is more fundamental... Our question is whether FIFA still has the courage to apply its regulations to everyone equally... without succumbing to political pressures.”
The association has called on FIFA to impose sanctions on Israeli clubs that operate in West Bank settlements and to suspend Israel’s FIFA membership over the country’s conduct in Gaza.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
“We are not asking for privileges; we are demanding legitimate rights guaranteed by international sporting laws and charters,” Rajoub said.
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026