The scale of destruction was evident on the Yarmouk Sports Stadium, constructed in 1952 following Egyptian rule of the Gaza Strip. The stadium was bombed during Operation Pillar of Cloud by Israeli warplanes last November. There is a lack of financial resources to repair it again in the near future. Although the stadium court has been rebuilt, the stands — which could once accommodate thousands of spectators — have not.
Israeli missiles targeted the two main stadiums in the Gaza Strip — the Al Yarmouk and Palestine stadiums — in the last eight days of the war. This caused athletic activity to come to a halt in the Strip, after it had stopped for close to three years when Hamas took over the Strip and assumed control over sports clubs.