Palestine football league suspended for 3 years, a generation of players at risk of being lost

Nearly three years have passed since the Gaza war suspended the Palestine Premier League, and Mahdi Hijazi (23) has not played professional football since. Instead, the former Palestine national team and Hilal Al-Quds player now earns a living selling refreshments near the Israeli police station in occupied East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

“Football runs in our blood. Win or lose – the ball is beautiful, it’s life… we breathe through football,” Hijazi told Al Jazeera. “For three years there has been no sporting activity. Everything is difficult. You can only keep fit by going to the gym… The only concern now is to return to football.”

The October 7, 2023 attack and the ensuing war changed everything. The Palestine Premier League was suspended indefinitely, pushing the future of Palestinian football into jeopardy. Teams built on players from the West Bank and East Jerusalem are now paralyzed because of Israeli military roadblocks and territorial fragmentation.

Khaled Abu Dalu, 36, a former Palestinian international who runs a youth football academy in Jerusalem, says professional league players used to earn 2,000–3,000 USD per month, while national team players could make up to 7,000 USD. “Some of my former students were stars, now unemployed, doing menial jobs. Nothing worthy of their careers,” he said.

Hijazi tells that many of his peers have left football for construction work, barbering, car repair, supermarket sales, or baking bread. “As footballers, we knew we'd get paid at the end of the month. But now some are married with children and have no income.” Hijazi himself now survives by trading cars.

Mustafa Owais, 35, a former professional, recalls a teammate in Bethlehem – the only person whose sole job was playing football – after the war has to work two days a week in the West Bank, earning 100–200 shekels (34–68 USD) per week. Another teammate who used to earn 5,000 USD per month now struggles on 500 USD.

Some desperate players have joined clubs in the Israeli Premier League. “Ultimately, a person wants to do what he loves, regardless of political views, so they go to the Israeli league until the Palestinian league returns,” coach Abu Dalu explained.

Abdul Fatah Arar, a veteran coach who has won the Palestinian league multiple times, estimates that 70–80 Palestinian players have gone to Libya, about 10 to Egypt, half a dozen to Jordan, and some to Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In those countries, Palestinian players are treated as domestic players, lowering contract costs. “Other players have no opportunity – they disappear,” he said.

Hijazi notes that even finding a foreign club, adaptation is not easy for players long unemployed. A former teammate from Hilal Al-Quds, who had his first child in October 2023, struggled to move to Libya but returned to Palestine after fearing night-time danger in Tripoli.

Palestinian women's football also struggling

In April 2025, the Palestinian women's team made history by winning the WAFF Women's Championship for the first time, defeating Jordan in the final. Laila Atamneh, 18, a U20 women's player, said they always remember “someone in Gaza is cheering for you.” “War can be a curse in many ways, but I feel it brought out the best version of the national team.”

Still, the women's clubs she played for have disappeared because of the crisis. “When you see no purpose for what you're doing, it's hard to continue. I wonder where my talent will go? They don't see the next step,” she explained. “Everything comes back to training. Without training, you get nowhere.”

A generation slipping away

The longer the league remains suspended, the more damage is done, especially to young players. “Every year we lose a generation,” said Khalil Hamed, a former player who now coaches at the Abu Dalu academy. “The generation that should be emerging is disappearing. Those who are 18 today should have been first-team stars two years ago, but they've given up.”

Coach Arar, who helped develop the West Bank first division since 2008, says none of the young players he coached in 2023 are still playing football. “They got older. Some disappeared – I don't know if they're working inside Israeli territory. Three years, four years – in football that's a generation. It's the time from one World Cup to the next.”

After the summer break, Arar hopes a scaled-down version of the league can emerge. Mustafa Owais predicts that if football returns, players might only be paid 500 shekels (171 USD) per month, or even nothing. Clubs are exhausted because funds from the Palestinian Authority have been blocked by Israel, and local corporate sponsors have vanished. “Sports have regressed 20 years – three years set us back 20 years,” he said.

Still, Arar remains optimistic. He believes the youth football academies sprouting in West Bank villages, led by former players and internationals, could be seeds of revival. “We can't say three years destroyed our project – no. As Palestinians, we don't give up. We started from zero and reached the top.”

At a Friday morning training session on the small Sheikh Jarrah pitch, Owais, Hamed, and a few other former professionals watch a small group of players run drills under coach Abu Dalu. He believes the first batch includes ten genuine talents, but fears the idle time will steal their chance. “At 18, if they don't get an opportunity, they'll end up like us – either become coaches or quit. If they could go to Europe, they'd play for any club. I hope they get a better chance than we ever saw.”