- Israel’s Amputee national soccer team will head to France for the 2024 European Amputee Soccer Championship to be held in June.
- The team’s lineup includes two Israeli soldiers who were seriously injured and lost limbs during the war in Gaza.
- Another team member was injured in a Hamas militant attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival.
When Ben Binyamin was left for dead with his right leg blown off during a Hamas attack on the Tribal Nova music festival, the Israeli professional soccer player thought he would never play the game he loved again. .
“When I woke up, I felt like I was going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair,” said the 29-year-old.
After that, Binyamin knew she had a chance to be “normal” again. It’s Israel’s national amputee soccer team.
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The team includes two Israeli soldiers who lost limbs in the war with Hamas, and all three have life-altering wounds sustained in the October 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza. It provided an opportunity to heal. In June, he will head to France for the European Amputee Football Championship. Approximately 16 teams, mainly from Europe, will participate.
Israel Amputee Football Team player Ben Binyamin controls the ball during a practice session in Ramat Gan, April 11, 2024. The team will head to France for the 2024 European Amputee Football Championship in June. The team’s lineup includes two Israeli soldiers who were seriously injured and lost limbs during the Hamas war in Gaza. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
“This is the best thing in my life,” said 1st Sgt. Omer Glikstal at the team’s twice-weekly practice at the stadium in Ramat Gan, outside Tel Aviv. The 20-year-old soldier from Haifa regularly played soccer until his life changed forever when his left leg was shattered by a rocket-propelled grenade during fighting in Gaza in November.
“It’s a very different game than we’ve played before, but at the end of the day it’s the same,” he said.
Dozens of Israelis lost limbs in the Hamas attack and subsequent war that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel. Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, which has a major rehabilitation center, said it had treated about 60 amputees alone.
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The Israeli Defense Ministry said 1,573 soldiers have been wounded since Israel launched a ground offensive in late October, when troops engaged in close combat with Hamas militants. The military does not have specific statistics on amputees, but said about 320 soldiers were seriously injured.
Israeli athletes and others who have lost limbs have benefited from a world-class medical system with decades of experience treating young people injured in war and conflict.
An unspecified number of Palestinians have also lost limbs in the war, which has killed nearly 34,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. Gaza’s medical system has been overwhelmed by the war, and doctors and patients say they are often forced to choose between amputation or death. Before the war, Gaza also had a fledgling team made up of amputee soccer players injured in previous conflicts with Israel.
Israeli army division commander Shaked Bitton lost his right leg in late October when a Hamas sniper shot him with a concrete-piercing .50 caliber round near the Jabaliya refugee camp. “I heard two gunshots. I fell down. I turned around and saw my feet,” said the 21-year-old soldier.
Bitton thought her life was over – she had never even met an amputee before – until she was visited by amputees at the hospital.
Among them was Zak Sikrua, founder of Israel’s national amputee soccer team. When he was 8 years old, his leg was hit by a bus and he was seriously injured, so he understood what they were going through and gave them hope.
“There is nothing better than competing on an international level with the Israeli flag on your chest. Most, if not all of us, could never even imagine something like this,” said lawyer Sikrul. (36) said. and team captain.
Since its creation five years ago, the Israeli team has become increasingly successful, finishing third in the Nations League in Belgium in October. This allowed them to qualify for the European Championships in June.
The Amputee Soccer team has six position players with lower limb amputations. They play on crutches and without prosthetic legs. Each team has a goalkeeper who is missing an upper limb. The pitch is narrower than standard.
In team practices, Israeli players are undaunted by the loss of arms and legs, whether due to accidents, war injuries or birth defects.
“We all have something in common. We have been through many difficult and difficult times. That unites us,” says the birth defect, which makes his right leg shorter than his left. said cyber security expert Avilan Ohana. He played with the team for two years.
On a recent April evening, the team began its warm-up with a dash around the pitch. The players raced forward on one foot on crutches.
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This was followed by a match against able-bodied players. A sweaty Binyamin kicked the ball with his left foot as his coach yelled from the sideline, “Forward! Forward!” Every goal was celebrated.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann was a Jewish neurologist who fled Nazi Germany and settled in Britain in 1939, and is known for pioneering competitive sport as a form of rehabilitation. London 1948 He organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes on the first day of the Olympic Games Mr. Guttmann is considered the father of the Paralympics and his achievements improved the lives of thousands of disabled athletes. I’ve let it happen.
In modern-day Israel, the Amputee Soccer Team offers players the excitement of competition and the healing power of sport, said Michal Nechama, the team’s physical therapist.
“They need it for their souls,” she said. “It gives them joy and pride. It’s something special that you can’t get in a hospital.”
