PARIS: Fadi Aldeeb got the competing out of the way early at the Paralympic Games. He’s been using the rest of the time to talk.
The only Paralympian in the Palestinian delegation in Paris, Aldeeb feels he bears special responsibility to represent all Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere. He tries not to think about his own situation.
“I’m their voice. And I want to talk and talk and talk,” the Gaza native told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
The 40-year-old Aldeeb, who uses a wheelchair, was the Palestinian flag bearer during the Games’ opening ceremony, two days before he placed last in the men’s shot put for seated athletes with a season best throw of 8.81 meters.
The winner, world record holder Ruzhdi Ruzhdi, returned to Bulgaria with his gold medal, but Aldeeb has stayed around the Paralympic Village, speaking to media about the desperate situation in his homeland following Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages.
After nearly 11 months of fighting, the war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who say about half of the dead are women and children. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. It has plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe, including new fears of a polio outbreak.
Aldeeb said he lost his younger brother on Dec. 6 when the building containing the family home in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah was bombed and destroyed.
Aldeeb, who besides competing in shot put is a professional wheelchair basketball player, was playing a French league match and only saw afterward he’d received many missed calls from the brother. There was no connection when he tried calling back. Another brother told him the next day he had been killed.
Aldeeb said it made him question why he plays sport. He said the image of his brother comes to him at night and he often wonders what he was trying to say when he called during the league match.
“I received a call from his daughter, she’s like, 7 years old. I never ever can forget this,” Aldeeb said, fighting tears. “She asked me, ‘My uncle, I know he’s died and he goes – Inshallah – to Jannah, but I want his body. I don’t need his body to stay under the building, and the dogs start eating his body.’ Imagine, a child 7 years old, speaking like this.”
Aldeeb said other family members decided to scatter around the Gaza Strip to maximize their chances of survival.
“If they stay together, it’s all too easy that all of this family disappears and is killed,” he said.
Aldeeb said he hasn’t seen his own wife and children for two years because they’re still in Turkiye, where he moved from Gaza in 2016 to play basketball. They can’t get a visa to join him in France, and he says he can’t get a visa to join them in Turkiye without going to Gaza.
“Sometimes, you keep your feelings inside of yourself because you don’t want to show yourself, like, weak or something like that. You want to keep going because you have a big goal. You want to have it, but at the same time when you’re alone, yeah, you’re crying, you’re human,” he said.
Aldeeb said he received his life-changing injury on Oct. 4, 2001. He said he was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper when soldiers responded with bullets after some kids threw stones at an Israeli tank.
The current war is creating many more potential Paralympians, but Aldeeb said all Palestinian athletes face a lack of facilities and equipment – and difficulties leaving.
The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended military rule, and Gaza’s borders have been sealed for months. Even before the war, athletes struggled to leave the territory for international competitions because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after the Hamas militant group seized power in 2007.
Aldeeb wants to see future Palestinian delegations at Paralympic and Olympic competitions grow.
“We have in Gaza something the world doesn’t have – the type of players, the type of athletes. What they need are just little programs. You cannot imagine what they can do,” Aldeeb said. “I hope they can get this opportunity before they are killed, I hope.”
War at home is taking its toll on the only Palestinian athlete at the Paralympic Games
https://arab.news/9386a
War at home is taking its toll on the only Palestinian athlete at the Paralympic Games
- The only Paralympian in the Palestinian delegation in Paris, Aldeeb feels he bears special responsibility to represent all Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere
- “I’m their voice. And I want to talk and talk and talk,” the Gaza native told AP
Rocky 2025 for Green Falcons leaves Saudi fans anxious ahead of 2026 World Cup
- Herve Renard’s team secured a seventh qualification for the Kingdom, but the year ended in disappointment after the semifinal exit at the Arab Cup
RIYADH: Just over three years ago, the Saudi men’s national team did the unthinkable, defeating eventual world champions Argentina in their opening match at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
As the 2026 World Cup approaches, with just under six months until the Green Falcons kick off against Uruguay, the contrast in sentiment surrounding the national team could hardly be starker.
The road since 2022 has been anything but smooth. While Herve Renard was head coach during Saudi Arabia’s memorable 2022 campaign, this is now his second tenure in the Kingdom. A brief spell under Roberto Mancini, one many Saudi fans would rather forget, saw progress stall on the road to 2026.
Despite significant excitement surrounding Renard’s in October 2024, the second chapter so far has failed to inspire.
A draw against Australia and a loss to Indonesia marked the beginning of Renard’s return, followed by an underwhelming campaign at the 26th Gulf Cup. Saudi Arabia did make it through to the semifinals, but for a nation that has not lifted a trophy since early 2004, supporters were desperate for silverware, even at the regional level.
There were signs of improvement at the start of 2025. Wins against China and Bahrain, alongside a draw in Japan, left the Greens one victory away from direct World Cup qualification — albeit requiring a favorable swing in goal difference after Australia’s last-minute win over Japan.
However, defeat to Australia, followed by another disappointing campaign, this time at the 2025 Gold Cup in the US, saw fans’ pessimism creep back in ahead of the fourth round of World Cup qualification.
A narrow win over Indonesia, coupled with a draw against Iraq, meant Saudi Arabia ultimately secured World Cup qualification for the seventh time. With the 2025 Arab Cup on the horizon, the Greens found themselves at a crossroads: Win the Arab Cup, and momentum heading into 2026 would be sky-high. Lose, and uncomfortable questions would resurface.
Saudi Arabia did reach the knockout stages, but once again, doubts remained. Renard’s trip to the US for the World Cup draw meant he missed out on the Comoros group stage clash, and that did little to ease concerns. Still, the Greens were three matches away from their first title in 21 years.
Palestine proved stern opposition in the quarterfinals, but Mohammed Kanno’s late intervention sent Saudi Arabia through to face Jordan, the 2023 Asian Cup finalists.
Jordan’s rise has increasingly unsettled the Saudi fanbase. Between 1970 and 2018, Saudi Arabia had lost to their neighbors just three times in 11 meetings. That has all changed since 2019, with Jordan triumphing in three of their last four outings against the Greens.
They would ultimately make it four from five, as a solitary second-half goal was enough to launch Jordan to their first-ever final, and disappointment once again took over the Saudi camp.
That result intensified calls for Renard to be sacked ahead of the World Cup. Rumors suggested his departure was imminent, but the Saudi Arabian Football Federation swiftly denied anything of the sort.
It is worth noting that Renard himself has already made history, becoming the first coach to lead Saudi Arabia to World Cup qualification in 2022 and remaining in the role for the start of the tournament. Should he remain in charge for 2026, he would also become the first to manage the team at two consecutive World Cups.
Yet while SAFF and Renard turn their attention to their next challenge, Saudi fans remain anxious.
Speaking to Arab News, local fan Ahmed Al-Bawardi said the issue extends beyond results. “It’s not so much about the results, but the national team’s identity,” he said.
“We don’t look like a well-oiled team on the pitch, and we don’t feel the same excitement as we did in 2022.”
Asked whether he would like Renard to stay, Al-Bawardi added: “Sacking Renard might solve some problems, but what we’re seeing is deeper than just bad tactics.”
Renard himself has repeatedly pointed to the limited game time afforded to domestic players in the Roshn Saudi League. Al-Bawardi responded with a sentiment shared by many Saudi fans: “The Premier League is the best in the world. How many domestic players start there?”
According to TransferMarkt data for the 2025/26 season, the Premier League has 544 players registered, 388 of whom are foreign — a staggering 71 percent. The Roshn Saudi League, by comparison, is still some way off — only 37.5 percent of the league’s players are foreign.
Balancing the national team’s development alongside the league’s rapid expansion was never going to be easy. Nor was switching managerial philosophies, only to return to one whose previous work was partially undone.
As Saudi Arabia looks ahead to 2026, unease remains among the fanbase. With a World Cup group that includes former world champions Spain and Uruguay, the road to the US, Mexico and Canada may still prove to be rocky.
