Majed Abu Maraheel

Football career Starting at a young age, Abu Maraheel initially played football for his former school's teams. He eventually joined the Al-Zaytoun Sports Club at its founding in 1981. He was the captain and a defender for the team and played alongside his brothers, Mohamed, who also played as a defender, and Magdy, who played as a goalkeeper. After his team's qualification to the league, he played on every occasion the team had a match. He retired from football on , after switching to athletics. Though he came out of retirement in 2004, to represent the team in a summer tournament organized by the Palestinian Al-Ahly Club, which was held at the Palestine Stadium. They reached the finals, placing as the runner-up behind the Rafah Services Club, with the latter winning 0–2 through penalty kicks.

Nabil Mabrouk, president of the Palestinian Track and Field Federation and member of the Palestine Olympic Committee (POC), saw Abu Maraheel in a football match in 1994 between his team and the Al-Tuffah Club. After the match, Mabrouk invited him to the Yarmouk Stadium to train, with Abu Maraheel coming in the next day. Mabrouk eventually served as his coach, with the two alternating between training on the beach and at the stadium. Through Mabrouk's coaching, he won the Gaza Cross Country Championship in January 1995.

He competed in an Olympic Day festival in June 1995, held in Gaza by the Palestinian Ministry of Youth and Sports. He won his division in an eight-kilometer (4.97 mi) race against 500 other men, receiving a trophy and a kiss from Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian National Authority and senior leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, during the awards ceremony. Arafat reportedly told Abu Maraheel, "You will now be with Force 17". He returned a kiss to Arafat and agreed to join the force. An IOC donation fund allowed the Palestinian athletes to travel to Atlanta.

Relationships between the Olympic Committee of Israel (OCI) and POC were fairly amicable during the Games, with respective committee presidents Ephraim Zinger and Muammar Bississo meeting during the opening ceremonies. The OCI officially rebuked Israeli governmental opposition to the POC competing under the name "Palestine", and Zinger extended an invitation for the Palestinian delegation to visit the OCI headquarters in Tel Aviv. Abu Maraheel and Salama shook hands, traded pins, and posed for photos with members of the Israeli delegation during the ceremony.

Both Palestinian athletes went to the Games wearing sneakers and expressed hopes for a donation of track shoes. Acknowledging the long history of conflict between Israel and Palestine, he stated to Sports Illustrated that greater connections between them "will be built through sports." The following year, he competed in the Turin Marathon in Turin, Italy, with fellow Palestinian long-distance runner Mohamed Salama. and a board member and supervisor for his former football team, Al-Zaytoun Sports Club. He resigned from his position as a board member and supervisor at Al-Zaytoun Sports Club on 23 May 2017.

He coached the Palestinian national athletics team, including future Olympian Nader al-Masri, at the 1999 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Belfast. He coached a variety of other Palestinian athletic teams, including those participating at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and the 2019 Arab Athletics Championships in Cairo. In Qatar, he trained the Palestinian runners Bahaa al-Farra and Woroud Sawalha for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He also coached the Palestinian team for the 2017 Arab Athletics Championships in Tunis, though the team could not attend due to a closure imposed by Israeli authorities.

Abu Maraheel was part of an organizing committee for the Gaza Olympic Day sporting event. Supported by the United Nations Development Programme and the government of Japan, the event was held at held in Yarmouk Stadium on 19 November 2022, and featured performances and meetings by several national sport federations.

Personal life Abu Maraheel was a practicing Muslim.

Death Abu Maraheel suffered kidney failure in 2024 while at the Nuseirat camp. Prior to his death, he was hospitalized for treatment at Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Due to power outages and medical shortages stemming from the Gaza war, medical treatment was limited, and he died on 11 June 2024, at the age of 61. According to Middle East Eye and Maktoob Media, his brother stated that he alongside his family tried to evacuate him through the Rafah Border Crossing for treatment in Egypt, but could not due to the blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by the Israeli government.

Career statistics International and local competitions The following table shows Abu Maraheel's performances in known local and international competitions.