"Gaza is like cycling: there's always a need for a team to surround you in difficult moments," this is an element I encountered from the first contact with the reality of territories I didn't know. Two wheels confirm their invaluable ability to describe places."

It was 2018 and the Giro d'Italia was starting from Israel. Flavia Cappellini, now a Sky Tg24 correspondent from the Middle East (responding from Jerusalem), was following the pink race because at that stage of her work she found herself dealing with cycling events almost by chance, after an interview (which apparently went well, thanks to her fluent English, "despite the fact that the night before I was consulting Wikipedia to learn something about a sport I didn't know") that took place in London in 2015 at IMG, a company that handles major cycling events worldwide.

Also in May 2018, just a few kilometers from the glittering Giro spotlight, Alaa Al Dali (a promising cyclist aiming for the Asian Games) underwent a prosthetic implant after being hit by an Israeli bullet that forced doctors to amputate. A story that inspired the documentary Tour of Gaza, currently being filmed - or rather, in the process of being made due to the evolving nature of the narrative - by Cappellini.

"How did you get to know the Gaza Sunbirds?"

"I manage to obtain a visa thanks to the NGO Acs, Association for Cooperation and Solidarity, which draws its lifeblood from the work of Vittorio Arrigoni, and I enter Gaza for the first time. I was intrigued and involved by the para-cycling activity, Alaa's story, co-founder of the association, who explained how the bike was his body and soul, constantly dealing with the siege. He was surprised at first that we were interested in his experience as a cyclist, and yet that was the case: there's a strong lesson in what began as a sporting activity, inevitably changing its face in the last two years. When will I finish filming? I hope in a year, filming Alaa's return and accompanying him to the Los Angeles Games through an impact campaign of awareness and support for participation."

Gaza Sunbirds has come to involve 27 Paralympic athletes, extending its activity to refugees in Egypt and Belgium.

"Since October 2023, with the outbreak of war and Genocide, our riders have transformed into messengers of help, using their own bikes to provide assistance and distribute food and medicine to a population terrified by life under bombs," they explain at the association.

Alaa (who has also raced in Italy, in Maniago) often recalls when he was a cyclist, until the day he was seriously injured by an Israeli sniper's bullet during the Great Return March (he was there dressed as a cyclist and protesting for the right to travel and pursue his sporting dreams): "Immediately after the amputation, it was as if life had ended, then I met a group of cycling friends and said I wanted to get back in the saddle. From there, the activity involving other amputees began."

In the documentary - whose project was presented at the Lau Haizetara Documentary co-production forum at the San Sebastian Film Festival - there are images describing the unsuccessful qualification attempt for Paris 2024, starting from the difficult crossing at the Egyptian border to the pre-race phases in Ostend, Belgium, where the Palestinian delegation received news of the expansion of ground operations in Rafah (the anxiety and concern for the fate of family members left in Palestine were only partially imaginable): "I would have wanted to become a champion with both legs, after amputation I am equally determined to represent Palestine in international competitions (as happened at the Paralympic World Championships in late August in Belgium, ed.), removing obstacles in a struggle we carry forward. We run to show the world our resilience, bringing home hope and inspiring people. We run for freedom," adds Alaa, about whom Flavia Cappellini tells of his efforts to obtain a stock of tires from the black market in Egypt.

With fundamental support from donations from England, the team is known and supported worldwide (www.gazasunbirds.org): generosity that has so far resulted in the distribution of 520,000 pounds in aid. After the establishment of a fragile truce, the Palestinian sports movement looks ahead, also remembering the 615 registered members who lost their lives in just 15 months, including a Sunbirds member, Ahmed Al Dali, Alaa's cousin, killed on June 19 during an air raid.

It is not easy to reorganize even embryonic activities in a country that, among many emergencies, faces the drama of thousands of pediatric amputations. Now, the hope of future participation of Palestine in the Paralympics (and Olympics) transforms into a persistent and powerful hymn to determination and hope.

photo credits: Flavia Cappellini, Gaza Sunbirds and Llewelyn Debelder