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Gaza Sunbirds is Palestine’s para-cycling team, founded by amputee athletes and built on the belief that movement is dignity, survival, and resistance.

What began with one cyclist returning to the bike after losing his leg has grown into a movement spanning international racing, humanitarian aid, rehabilitation, storytelling, and global solidarity.
As Seen On

2018: the cyclist who refused to stop...

Before Gaza Sunbirds existed, Alaa Al-Dali was one of Palestine’s leading cyclists. For six years, he tried to leave Gaza to compete internationally, but the Israeli siege repeatedly denied him the freedom to race.

In 2018, he finally had the chance to represent Palestine at the Asian Games in Jakarta. Two months before the competition, while on his way to training, Alaa stopped at the Great March of Return wearing his cycling jersey and holding his bike.

He was shot in the leg by Israeli forces and later denied medical evacuation. After countless surgeries, he was forced to choose between his leg and his life.

He called it “the amputation of his dream.”

Within one month, Alaa was back on the bike. His recovery became the beginning of Gaza Sunbirds: a belief that if one Palestinian amputee cyclist could return to the sport, a whole team could be built to raise the Palestinian flag on the world stage

29,000+

People Injured

6,846

Hit By Live Ammunition

5,784

Shot in the limbs

125

Amputations

During the Great March of Return, thousands of Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces. 

Learn more about Ala's story and the Gaza Sunbirds through the Tour de Gaza documentary produced by Flavia Cappellini.

Raffah, 2021: Coach Hassan Harb training Haitham Nasir, Alaa AlDali with other team members.
In 2020, Alaa Al-Dali and Karim Ali co-founded Gaza Sunbirds to create a sporting pathway for Palestinian athletes with disabilities. The goal was not only to compete. It was to build something Palestine had never had before: a team where amputee athletes could train, race, represent their country, and challenge the way the world sees disability in Gaza.

From the beginning, Gaza Sunbirds was about more than medals. It was about movement in a place where movement is constantly restricted. It was about giving athletes the equipment, coaching, structure, and international access needed to compete at the highest level. The team’s long-term sporting ambition is clear: to qualify Palestinian para-cyclists for the Paralympic Games and build a sustainable para-cycling system for future generations.

By 2023, Gaza Sunbirds had grown from one rider’s recovery into a team of 25 athletes training inside Gaza, ranging in age from 12 to 48. Building that team was slow, difficult, and often improvised. There was no proper para-cycling infrastructure, limited access to prosthetics, few adapted bikes, and almost no specialist equipment. Every helmet, spare part, bike, tool, and training opportunity had to be found, donated, repaired, shipped, or carried in through a blockade.

What we were building was more than a team. It was a pathway for Palestinians with disabilities to train, recover, and compete.

Before we could build a team, we had to build the conditions for a team to exist.

Karim Ali

Learn more about Ala's story and the Gaza Sunbirds through the Tour de Gaza documentary produced by Flavia Cappellini.

Alaa AlDali distributing aid in Gaza in 2024 Credit Mohammed Suleiman 
When the genocide on Gaza escalated in 2023, Gaza Sunbirds’ world changed overnight. The roads once used for training became roads of displacement. Athletes who had been preparing for races were suddenly searching for food, water, medicine, and shelter for their families and communities.

But the team did not disappear.

Gaza Sunbirds began using the same local networks, trust, and movement that had built the cycling team to deliver aid across Gaza. Athletes, staff, and volunteers became organisers, distributors, messengers, and community responders. Aid became a continuation of the same belief that created the team: that Palestinians with disabilities are not passive victims, but leaders in their communities. Every food parcel, tent, medicine delivery, and pizza party became a way to protect life and dignity It was not only survival work. It was hope.

In 2024, Alaa Al-Dali, Mohammed Asfour, Waheed Rabah, and Coach Hassan Abu Harb were evacuated from Gaza and began rebuilding the team’s sporting pathway outside the place where it started.

But leaving Gaza did not mean leaving the story behind. Inside Gaza, the team continued delivering aid. Outside Gaza, the athletes returned to training and competition, carrying the responsibility of representing those who could not leave.

Every race became a way to keep Gaza visible, keep the Palestinian flag moving, and show that disabled Palestinian athletes belong on the world stage.

We sacrificed everything to represent Palestine. And we did represent Palestine. 

Alaa AlDali

Learn more about our international sports competitions in this feature by the Guardian which covers our 2024 debut cycling season. 

By 2025, Gaza Sunbirds had become a team living across borders.

In Belgium, evacuated athletes had to adapt quickly and start again in a completely new international environment: new roads, new equipment, new routines, new classification systems, and the pressure of competing at a higher level. In Egypt, new athletes began a different journey through rehabilitation, prosthetics support, gym assessment, cycling introduction, and athlete development. In Gaza, the heart of the team remained: the athletes, families, volunteers, and communities who gave Gaza Sunbirds its purpose.

From Gaza to Egypt to Belgium, Gaza Sunbirds was building more than a team. It was building a route from injury, to adaptation, to representation. 

We are starting sports activities again in Gaza while scaling up our aid distributions. For the first time, the racing programme grew: four athletes competed internationally, the team attended all three UCI Para-cycling World Cups for the first time, and riders earned more than 200 points for Palestine. The team is starting to work with women athletes, opening a new chapter for Palestinian para-cycling.

In Belgium, athletes adapted to high-performance training, new roads, equipment, routines, classification, and international competition. In Egypt, new athletes entered rehabilitation, prosthetics support, gym assessment, and cycling development.

At Cannes, the forthcoming Gaza Sunbirds documentary received the Think-Film Award after screening a teaser of the full film, carrying the team’s story into one of the world’s most visible cultural spaces.

Learn more about our team in Egypt and the quick progress of our athletes. 

Today: One Team, Many Fronts

Today, Gaza Sunbirds is more than a para-cycling team. It is a Gaza-born movement working across sport, aid, rehabilitation, storytelling, and global solidarity.

In Gaza, the team continues direct aid and community response. We're now starting up sports activites and opening the team for new athletes for the first time since 2023.

In Egypt and Belgium, we are formalising our work and scaling up our recruitment pipeline to provide para-cycling opportunities to refugees from all backgrounds, making Palestine leaders in the field. 

Internationally, our professional athletes continue racing to break into the top 8 nations in Asia this year to earn a slot for Paralympic qualification. 

Around the world, supporters, volunteers, riders, filmmakers, artists, and campaigners help carry the story forward.

view our programmes

para cycling
We're transforming para-sports for Gaza's future. 3 Countries, 27 Riders, weekly classes, personal coaching for people with disabilities.
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AID IN GAZA
Since October 7th our team in Gaza turned into an aid force on bikes distributing more than $450,000 (USD) of life saving essentials.
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races and campaigns
600 Stories from Gazans, +110 press features, +150 Events, 2 international campaigns, +500 Rides accross 90 Cities. +1.5 Million Views per month. 
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Why We Ride

I had a dream of being a champion with both legs. After my amputation, I am determined to be a champion for Palestine with one. It is our duty to rise to the obstacles of our ongoing struggle. We ride to show the world our resilience, to bring hope home, and to inspire people through our stories. We are riding for freedom.

- Alaa

Our mission
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5 years of delivery
Since 2020 we’ve logged five consecutive years of aid runs, sports programmes, and global campaigns—through war, siege, and displacement. That track record means trusted local networks, refined logistics, and the know-how to keep delivering when larger agencies stall.
video reporting
Every aid run is filmed end-to-end, from loading the truck to the hand-offs, so supporters can see precisely where their contributions go. We edit and share these clips within days, tagging donors and partners to celebrate our shared achievements and provide transparent, verifiable proof that the work on screen matches the pledges we make.
price concious
Getting money into Gaza is hard; maximising its impact is non-negotiable. Our field team scouts prices daily. With local connections and price comparisons, we lock in fair pricing to deliver services to the widest number of people possible.  
tripple audited
We are tripple audited by our local partners in Gaza, by our international team and by our International Charity Partners. Our funds are held with AMOS Trust for specific purposes. This means the money you send in for aid gets used for aid, and the money you send in for our other activities are held on the side too. Your money will definitely make it to Gaza, every month we are able to expand on the amount of services we are providing people.
impact focused
Aid is paired with story. Each food box or water tank we deliver is photographed or filmed with the family’s consent; the 60-second stories that follow have generated 3 million+ views and a wave of repeat donations. By linking needs to human faces, we transform one-off gifts into sustained community support.
5 years of delivery
Since 2020 we’ve logged five consecutive years of aid runs, sports programmes, and global campaigns—through war, siege, and displacement. That track record means trusted local networks, refined logistics, and the know-how to keep delivering when larger agencies stall.
Disability lead
Athletes with disabilities aren’t just beneficiaries here—they’re part of our leadership. From programme design to our teams long term vision, people with disabilities help shape every decision, proving that those most affected by violence and exclusion are best placed to drive bold, inclusive solutions. 
Community Run
The Sunbirds are a grassroots collective, led by Palestinians on the ground and in the diaspora. We make decisions close to the communities we serve, cutting out costly bureaucracy and ensuring that resources move quickly from donors to frontline action.

Athletes, team staff, and local volunteers manage every delivery route and training session. Our field team lives inside the camps we serve, so aid lists come from neighbours. Distributed  with a team structure, we move faster than large INGOs, intervening to support our community through a diverse range of interventions. 

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