The national soccer team made it to the knockout stages of the Arab Cup for the first time, uniting fans from Gaza to the West Bank to Cairo to Arab cities in Israel.

https://archive.ph/8DQK4

Dec. 12, 2025

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.

Ismail Nasser al-Din, 20, sat dripping wet, clutching a Palestinian flag. He said he had lost his brother, a cousin and a friend in the war. “I hope our team will win,” he said. “We need any reason to laugh, enjoy and get some relief.”