She and her family fled their home in the north of the Gaza Strip to the south,
Cairo:
On October 6, 2023, Palestinian karate champion Mais Elbostami went to bed emotional after winning a competition in the Gaza Strip. She woke up the next day to a different world.
“I won first place,” the shy 18-year-old told AFP in a suburb of Cairo, where her family now lives after escaping the war and where she is training in the hope of one day representing her country internationally.
She said she “hadn’t even hung up the medals” she won on October 6, before Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
Immediately, she and her family fled their home in the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, as Israel launched a relentless retaliatory military campaign.
Over the past nine months, the war has reduced much of the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble and killed more than 38,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Amid the hell of bombing and displacement, “every hour that passed felt like I aged a year,” Elbostami said.
Death was all around him.
“In the first 10 days alone, I lost my trainer Jamal al-Khairy and his granddaughter, who trained with me,” she said.
When the family arrived in the Egyptian capital in April, Elbostami had two things on his mind: making sure his relatives back home were safe and getting back to training karate.
‘Raise the flag’
Despite being stuck in Gaza, Palestinian national team coach Hassan al-Raiy put her in touch with the Egyptian team and within two weeks she was back on the mat.
“My coaches here in Egypt have practically adopted me and are working with me so that I can get good enough to compete in the upcoming championships,” she said.
Whenever she can, she trains on the mat. But with limited resources and gym time, Elbostami also had to train in the streets and gardens around her home.
His mind often wanders to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza.
“Training at home was different. Every Friday my teammates and I went to train by the sea,” she said.
Karate is known for its strong focus on discipline and self-control, and this helped the young karateka to “disconnect from reality” – living as a refugee from a brutal war – even if for a short time.
“My emotions sometimes get the best of me. There are times when I can’t get through a full session” without remembering to “flee on foot as airstrikes were falling around us,” she said.
Elbostami tries to focus on his goal – “to represent my country and fly its flag in international competitions”.
‘It’s for my country’
She still has a long way to go and her first stop on that journey will be the Egyptian national championships in August.
“It’s a difficult challenge,” she said, because Egyptian karate athletes have historically outperformed their Palestinian counterparts.”
“But this will also raise my level.”
Elbostami’s Egyptian coach, Mamdouh Salem, told AFP that the teenager was an “athlete with a lot of potential, dedication and persistence.”
“We are working on his technique, but at the end of the day karate is more a game of skill than talent – I hope Mais excels.”
He said he wants to help her raise the Palestinian flag around the world.
“If we cannot fight with them” in Gaza, “we can at least help them represent their country abroad,” he said, echoing widespread Egyptian solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Her teammates, coaches and most of her relatives in Gaza may remain trapped in Gaza – and she said dozens of them were killed – but against all odds, Elbostami survived.
“So I have no excuse to stop me from achieving my goal,” she said.
“I will do everything I can to highlight the Palestinian cause. Every championship and every time I represent Palestine, it is for my country, for the martyrs and the wounded.”
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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