How I escaped Gaza’s war to fight for my Olympic dream: The Gaza Man

Before every weightlifting competition, Mohammed Hamada thinks of Gaza. He recalls the destruction of the city he grew up in and the mass grave he dug for his neighbors. These harrowing circumstances have created a unique athlete — one who lost 18kg (40 pounds) in five months, ate animal food to survive, and ultimately left Gaza and his family behind to pursue his dream of competing in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Weightlifting runs in Mohammed’s blood. His uncle was a weightlifter, his nephews are active in the sport, and his older brother, Hussam, is both his personal trainer as well as the coach of the Palestinian weightlifting team. At just 18, Mohammed himself made history as the first Palestinian Olympic weightlifter at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and then won gold at the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships in Greece.

Despite the relentless bombing of Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attacks that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives, Mohammed and Hussam’s dream of competing in the Olympics has remained as strong as ever. "Before the war, my dream was to take my country to the Olympics. But my ambition has increased since," says Mohammed.

For the Hamada brothers, competing on the world stage is not about fame or glory; it's about carrying a message of representation. They want the world to stop and recognise Palestinians, to listen to their anthem, and know they exist and will not give up. “For me,” reflects Mohammed, “this whole journey of reaching the Olympics is my greatest victory because I never gave up even in the face of death.”

The Gaza Man, a DigiDocs film by Tierney Bonini and Harriet Tatham, is an intimate journey of determination, resilience, and the courage to dream even in the face of unthinkable adversity.