World Cup brings Gazans moments of joy and hope amid devastation

Geoff Bennett:

The largest World Cup in history draws to a close this weekend, and Sunday's final is expected to be watched by more than one billion people.

Tonight, we have a look at how the world's most popular sporting event is being marked in a place where celebration has become rare.

As Nick Schifrin reports with producer Shams Odeh, the tournament has helped Palestinians in Gaza find moments of connection and hope.

Nick Schifrin:

Thousands of miles from soccer's biggest stage is a landscape of crushed concrete, where children play on the remnants of war, and one child's dream is to sit atop the soccer world and one day win the World Cup.

Ten-year-old Mohammed Shaaban might have lost both legs and his right hand in an Israeli airstrike, but not his ability to dribble or love for soccer. Inside the family's canvas home, his mom is his teammate, every pass proof the war has not claimed everything.

Sondos Bashir, Mother of Mohammed Shaaban (through interpreter): Mohammed is talented in soccer. He loves to watch the World Cup. His favorite player is Ronaldo. His goal is to play before the world, and he will not forget the pain he's in until he achieves this goal. I pray that he becomes a source of pride for Arabs and Arab teams.

Nick Schifrin:

The family's been displaced a dozen times, carrying Mohammed for miles with no wheelchair. His mother, Sondos, struggles to keep him safe and distracted from ongoing dangers. She's desperate to let Mohammed heal, possible only if they find a way out.

Sondos Bashir (through interpreter):

Every six months or so, Mohammed has needed surgery because of the deep scar tissue caused by rat bites. Rats cause these infections, and when it gets really bad, he's undergone further surgery. I don't want Mohammed to suffer any more.

Nick Schifrin:

He pushes himself further than most of us would be able to go, past the fences that war built around him, to precious moments with friends, just a boy playing the game he loves.

Sondos Bashir, Soccer Player (through interpreter):

When we play outside, we constantly hear gunshots. We run away because we're terrified. Our only resort is to play between the tents.

I want to travel abroad and install my prosthetics. I want to play soccer with my friends and play at the World Cup.

Nick Schifrin:

For a people living through war, the beautiful game offered a brief escape from a still ugly reality, especially when their Arab neighbor Egypt played. The crowd gathered wherever they could find a seat. When Egypt scored...

(Cheering)

Nick Schifrin:

... a shared celebration, a reminder there is still a wide world beyond the rubble.

They gathered in the shadow of shattered buildings and watched through bombed walls that have become windows. Egypt publicly dedicated its victories to Palestinians.

Ahmed Miqdad, Gaza Resident and Egypt Fan (through interpreter): Today, I walked three miles to reach this place so I could celebrate with my family and my people. They are attending as if it were their match, as if it were their country.

Nick Schifrin:

And their coach. On Gaza's beach, artists carved a tribute to Egyptian coach Hossam Hassan, whose message resonated beyond the pitch.

Hossam Hassan, Egyptian World Cup Team Coach:

So I am a message through football, the soft power in the world. Let the Palestinian people live. Live. They do not want anything, just to live.

Nick Schifrin:

But in Gaza, there is still death, last week, another funeral for Mohamed Al-Waheidi. He was an aid worker who helped displaced families and organize the World Cup screenings. His family says an Israeli airstrike killed him in a taxi on his way to watch Egypt play Argentina.

Israel says he wasn't the target, and they were aiming at a Hamas operative. His family refutes that.

Nashaat Al-Waheidi, Cousin of Mohamed Al-Waheidi (through interpreter): It was also targeting the joy of the Palestinian people during the World Cup for Egypt, which raised the Palestinian flag before any other flag or banner.

Nick Schifrin:

Since last October's cease-fire, the U.N. says more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, an inconsolable mother. Here, grief is measured in generations.

And yet life still finds a way. There might be no white paint, but there's water and rocks and a need to not be defined by war. Soccer is for everyone. A displaced camp becomes the pitch. Teams of red and blue play a homegrown World Cup.

Bilal Hamdan, Soccer Match Organizer (through interpreter):

This game cannot change their reality, but at least it changes their mood for the day. We want to send a kind message to the world that we hope our lives can slowly get better from the current state.

Nick Schifrin:

And so, in this place where the war has taken so much, the game gives kids the chance to be kids again.

With Shams Odeh in Gaza, for the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.