Khaberni - Ehab Abu Jazar, the coach of the Palestinian national team, is inspired not only by the spirit of perseverance and determination of his mother living in a tent in the Gaza Strip but also receives technical and tactical advice from her on the eve of leading "Al-Fida'i" to an unprecedented achievement by reaching the quarterfinals of the Arab Football Cup in Doha.
The teams of Palestine and Syria captured the ticket to the quarterfinals in the FIFA Arab Cup 2025, within the first group.
Qatar, the "host of the tournament", and Tunisia bid an early farewell to the competition after a lackluster performance from both teams.
Abu Jazar (45 years old), is particular about his mother speaking to him only over the phone from Gaza exclusively about the national team, "She talks to me about nothing but the national team, as she wants to keep the focus solely on the tournament."
He adds, "My mother asks me about the players. Who will play as a starter and who will be absent, about the tactics and the morale of the young players and the circumstances surrounding them."
His mother, Huda Mahmoud Abu Jazar (62 years old), now displaced in Al-Mawasi camp in Gaza, near Khan Yunis, lives in a tent with his other son, his wife, and their children.
She said, "His passion for playing football began when he was young. He started playing in a small team in Rafah, then joined the Palestinian national team and traveled to the West Bank to continue his career because football was the dream of his life."
She continued, "Ehab worked hard on himself, despite all the difficult circumstances, until he now became the coach of the Palestinian football team. After a lot of effort from him and his team to reach this great level we see in the matches now, it made us all proud, a great honor for us and the people of Gaza and Palestine."
She added, "The feeling is indescribable from the intense joy for my son and his wonderful team," revealing, "The whole camp here screamed and cheered the moment the Palestinian team won, and the sounds of ululation rose, they brought back to us a joy we had forgotten in Gaza."
- "They demolished the house of a lifetime" -
Abu Jazar, who assumed the command of "Al-Fida'i" at the end of 2024, refers to the tragedy experienced by his family after the war "My house was demolished, and the homes of my relatives were demolished, the house that we built brick by brick (stone by stone) was destroyed, it was the house of a lifetime (...)".
He continues, "My mother and siblings live in a tent, and they struggle a lot to watch our matches on TV, 'they think how to manage the generator and buy fuel to run it .. and hook it up to the TV'."
However, he adds, "All these conditions push us to fight on the field till the last breath and this is what always keeps us on our feet and gives us the motive to make our people in Gaza happy."
If these circumstances posed a burden on him, Abu Jazar, who ended his playing career in 2017 and moved to coaching in 2020 by taking charge of the under-23 national team, says, "At times, specifically at the beginning of the war, it was a burden. Let's be realistic, we were not comprehending what was happening, but we have the genes of not giving up."
- "If we give in, we will perish" -
He continues, "If we surrender and yield to these things, then as a people we will perish, and our cause will disintegrate. We possess enough perseverance and determination to stand up again, and here I am not talking about slogans but about reality."
Abu Jazar confirms that "the Palestinian national team carries a large legacy of martyrs, injured, prisoners, deportees, and the diaspora, and it is a team that also carries a legacy of suffering and torment as well as a message of a living people, who want to live like the rest of the world's peoples."
He adds, "A vibrant people if given the circumstances excel in all fields."
- "Suffering reflects positive pressure" -
About this spirit, Abu Jazar says, "We always say that we are a small Palestinian family representing the big family which is all the Palestinian people in the interior or in the diaspora."
He continues, "We also try to convey the message that reaches us from the interior and from the Gaza Strip and the northern governorates. No doubt it creates pressure on us, but it is a positive pressure."
And Abu Jazar, who started his career as a player with Shabab Rafah before moving to Hilal Al-Quds, Al-Am'ari, and Shabab Al-Samu, confirms that his country's aspirations gradually grow in the tournament, "We take the tournament match by match. From the moment we arrived in Qatar, we were thinking about the Libya match (in the qualifiers). Then we started thinking about Qatar and then Tunisia."
