For 2 Hours, a Soccer Match Offers Palestinians a Rarity: Joy

Members of Saudi Arabia and Palestine’s national teams playing in the quarterfinals of the Arab Cup. It was the first time the Palestinian team had made it that far in the tournament.
“The Palestinians needed a win. Not on the battlefield, or at the United Nations, or in The Hague — but on the soccer field. For the first time, the Palestinian national soccer team had made it into the quarterfinals of the Arab Cup, a regional tournament dating back to 1963. And on Thursday night, in packed cafes in Cairo, restaurants in Ramallah in the West Bank, hookah bars in Arab towns in Israel and even tents in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, Palestinians were out together, riding the emotional roller coaster of watching their team fight for its survival against an opponent with a much stronger record. For many watching the game, the parallels with other struggles were inescapable. … In Gaza, nearly 50 men, teenagers and boys made their way through a stormy night and muddy, flooded streets to a makeshift cafe in a tent on the outskirts of Khan Younis, where a technician worked frantically to get the game’s livestream playing on a big TV powered by solar panels and batteries, and the cafe’s owner fed cardboard boxes and paper scraps into a fire to make hot drinks and heat the room. …”
NY Times (Video)

Outside the cafe west of Khan Younis, watching the Palestinian match with Saudi Arabia. A victory didn’t seem out of reach.