As the final whistle blew at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Mohammed Saleh fell to his knees. The Gaza-born defender had just captained Palestine to a historic 3–0 victory over Hong Kong, reaching the knockout rounds of this year’s Asian Cup for the first time. He composed himself before standing and pointing to the number 110, written on his forearm. It had been 110 days of Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza by the time of this victory, during which an estimated twenty-five thousand Palestinian people had already been killed, with a further two million more displaced.

Saleh told media afterward that he “played this match for our people in Gaza and the souls of the martyrs.” His family home in rural Gaza had been destroyed, his family displaced, and many of his friends killed, with news of several deaths coming through while he was at the Asian Cup.

Palestine would go on to lose 2–1 to the hosts and eventual champions, Qatar, though not before Oday Dabbagh, the team’s star forward, put the team up 1–0 in the thirty-sixth minute, finishing with a calmness that belied the struggles the team had survived to even take to the field. Three of the players originally called up to the tournament were unable to leave Gaza to join the squad. More than half of those that did rapidly worked to get back to match fitness, plying their trade for Palestinian teams where competition had been suspended for over three months.