This July and August, the Big Ride for Palestine 2024 is riding in cities across UK to support the Gaza Sunbirds Paracycling team.

The Gaza Sunbirds are a team of para-athletes based in the Gaza Strip. The team was founded by Alaa al-Dali, an Olympic hopeful cyclist, after he was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper in 2018, whilst watching the March of Return. Alaa's leg was amputated from below the knee, but he did not give up his dream, and channeled his energies into establishing an amputee cycling team within Gaza — called the Gaza Sunbirds, with the hope that they would defy the odds to compete in Paris 2024.

Since the brutal bombardment of Gaza began following the 7th October, the Gaza Sunbirds have halted their training program and are working to distribute food parcels and aid to their communities in Gaza, whilst harbouring the dream of representing Palestine on the global stage.

Amidst the existential struggle that Gazans are facing, Alaa's dream of raising the Palestinian flag at the Paralympics, seems more vital than ever.

In April, a small group of the Sunbirds were able to get permission to leave Gaza for Egypt. Karim Ali and the others involved in running the Sunbirds were then frantically trying to get permission for Alaa to take part in the Cycling World Cup qualifying rounds in Belgium, Italy and then Kazakhstan so that he could apply for a wild card place in Paris Olympics.

We have recently heard the fantastic news that Alaa has been awarded a place for the Cycling World Championships in Zurich at the end of September. After travelling to Malaysia (a country that doesn't require entry visas for Palestinians) Alaa has now returned to Italy, where he is training and awaiting to hear about the wild card places for Paris 2024, hoping that the impossible will become real.

To learn more about what the Sunbirds are doing to distribute aid in Gaza, and to follow them on their journey to represent Palestine on a global stage, follow them on Instagram: @gazasunbirds

To find out more about the Sunbirds, visit this page:

https://www.amostrust.org/palestine-justice/gaza/gaza-sunbirds/