Gaza's young female boxers train on the beach amid COVID-19 closures

Coach said the public training sessions could help get more girls involved in the sport

Last updated: May 22, 2020 | 14:31

Reuters and Compiled by Nathaniel Lacsina, Digital Content Editor

2 MIN READ

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Gaza: Trading jabs and punches, a team of young female boxers - some as young as four - trained on the beach in Gaza this week after their club was closed due to COVID-19.

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The sight of over a dozen girls boxing on the beach while wearing face masks caught the eye of passersby in the Mediterranean coastal enclave, where the sport is mostly popular with men.

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The girls' coach, Osama Ayob, said the public training sessions could help get more girls involved in the sport. Women make up half of the strip's two million population.

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"Some families walking by us liked the idea and they asked if they could send their girls so I can train them," said Ayob, 34.

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One of the boxers, 15-year-old Malah Mesleh, said she would rather train in public than miss out on sessions -- or, worse yet, risk contagion by practising in the team's gym.

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"We decided to leave the club because it is a closed space, and the virus, if present, would easily spread," she said.

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Gaza has reported 55 COVID-19 cases, all of them in quarantine centres, and not deaths. Schools, wedding halls and gyms have been closed but the strip's Islamist rulers Hamas have not imposed a full lockdown, saying it was not necessary.

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