| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birth name | Mohammed Khamis Haidar Hamada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Palestinian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 14 March 2002 Gaza, Palestine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 101.35 kg (223.4 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Palestine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Weightlifting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | 96 kg, 102 kg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Mohammed Khamis Haidar Hamada (Arabic : محمد خميس حيدر حمادة; born 14 March 2002) is a Palestinian weightlifter from Gaza. He was the first Palestinian to compete in the sport at the Olympics. [1] [2]
Hamada participated in the men's 96-kilogram event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, making him the first-ever weightlifter from Palestine to compete at the Olympics. He finished 13th. [3]
Hamada left Gaza several weeks before the Olympics to avoid traveling issues, having secured his place after participating in six international qualifying contests since 2019. His brother Hussam is the Palestinian national weightlifting team coach. [4] [5]
He was the flag bearer of Palestine's Olympic National Team during the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
In 2022, Hamada won gold and bronze in the IWF Weightlifting Junior World Championships held in Heraklion, Greece. [6]
In 2024, Hamada injured his knee and lost around 20 kg (44 lb) carrying water during the ongoing Israel–Hamas war and Gaza genocide. He thus failed to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. [7] [8] A documentary film chronicles his journey during the Gaza genocide, [9] which included having to eat animal feed to survive.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas, is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist political organisation with a military wing called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It has governed the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states. It encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories, within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region. Palestine shares most of its borders with Israel, and it borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its administrative center. Gaza City was its largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.
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Experts, governments, United Nations agencies, and non-governmental organisations have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people during its invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war. Various observers, including Francesca Albanese, have cited statements by senior Israeli officials that may indicate an "intent to destroy" Gaza's population, a necessary condition for the legal threshold of genocide to be met. A majority of mostly US-based Middle East scholars believe Israel's actions in Gaza were intended to make it uninhabitable for Palestinians, and 75% of them say Israel's actions in Gaza constitute either "major war crimes akin to genocide" or "genocide".
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