Orban hosts Israel for Euro 2024 qualifiers as Palestine's World Cup prep continues during war

The Palestine national football team's head coach Makram Daboub takes some comfort – for now at least – that his players stuck in Gaza are safe.

The struggle to prepare his squad for the start of the 2026 World Cup qualification games is his secondary priority. 

Daboub wanted to include Ibrahim Abuimeir, Khaled Al-Nabris, and Ahmed Al-Kayed in a training camp in Jordan ahead of the qualifiers, but they were unable to make it out of Gaza because of the Israel-Hamas war, now in its second month.

That is where influential Italian manager Arrigo Sacchi's words come true, that football is "the most important of the least important things in life" and the national team will play against Lebanon next Thursday and Australia on 21 November against a backdrop of Israel's offensive on Gaza. 

“So far they are fine,” Daboub told The Associated Press. “Many of their relatives have died, however, as a result of the bombing.”

Two players from Gaza, Egypt-based Mohamed Saleh and Mahmoud Wadi, are expected to join the Palestinian team in Jordan.

“With the death and destruction in Gaza, the players are in a difficult psychological state,” Daboub added. 

But for Susan Shalabi, the vice-president of the Palestine Football Association, there's no question that the players and the people want the games to go ahead.

“This is a people that wants to be heard and seen by the rest of the world, wants to live normally like everyone else, so people care about their national team,” Shalabi told AP. “It represents the yearning to be recognized as a free and sovereign nation.”

Palestine had initially been drawn to host Australia to start this round of qualifying, but the game has been shifted to a neutral venue in Kuwait.

Preparations have already been