Loud cries went up for the Palestinian anthem before the game and the team’s players put their arms around each other’s shoulders.
A brief moment’s silence was held before kick-off, the quiet punctuated by cries of “free Palestine.”Captain Musab Al-Battat said on the eve of the game that the players were determined to “put a smile on the faces of the Palestinian people” despite the team’s difficult build-up.
Some players have lost loved ones in Israel’s bombardment of the besieged, Hamas-run territory of Gaza, a response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.