This July and August, the Big Ride for Palestine 2025 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 2023, 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.

In April 2024, a small group of Sunbirds were able to get permission to leave Gaza for Egypt. Though he didn't make it to the 2024 Paris paralympics, Alaa qualified for a place in the 2024 Cycling World Championships in Zurich, in September 2024, where he became the first cylist to represent Palestine on the world stage!

Alaa is now in Belgium, and will once again flying the Palestinian flag when he competes in the Paracycling World Cup at the start of May in Belgium. As we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza, this representation is more important then ever.

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/

Share your page