With one leg, this Gazan parkour star crosses besieged enclave

Hana Salah

Feb 10, 2021

Mohamed Aliwa, a Palestinian youth whose leg was amputated near the knee in 2018 after he was hit by Israeli army fire during protests along the fortified border separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, shows off his parkour skills despite his disability and while on crutches in Gaza City on January 4, 2021. - Parkour, an extreme sport also known as free-running, originated in France in the 1990s. Young people in the Gaza Strip have been practising parkour for years; bounding from ruin to ruin in an enclave p — Mohammed Aliwa, a Palestinian youth whose leg was amputated near the knee in 2018 after he was hit by Israeli army fire during protests along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, shows off his parkour skills, Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Jan. 4, 2021. — Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Mohammed Aliwa, 18, did not lose hope despite losing his right lower leg after being shot by Israeli snipers in 2018, while taking part in the return marches in eastern Gaza City.

Palestinian factions had organized a series of protests, dubbed the Great Marches of Return, each Friday along the Gaza-Israel border starting on March 30, 2018, to demand lifting the Israeli siege on Gaza.

When he received his prosthesis, Aliwa began practicing parkour with great professionalism. Parkour is a gymnastics-like activity aimed to overcome obstacles by moving, running, jumping and climbing from one point to another. From a young age, he would play different types of sports, gaining physical flexibility.

Aliwa lives in the Shajaiya neighborhood, in eastern Gaza City, which was almost completely destroyed by Israel during its last war on the Gaza Strip in 2014.

With one leg, this Gazan parkour star crosses besieged enclave

Official authorities in the Gaza Strip do not recognize parkour as an official sport, but it has become the only breathing space for many young people in the enclave.

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