In the shadow of the rocket fire on Tel Aviv and the "Dawn" operation, the European handball championship for youth under 18, tier B, opened this evening (Sunday) at the Shlomo Group Hall in Tel Aviv.
On the eve of the games, all the participating teams landed in Israel and the organizers breathed a sigh of relief when there were no cancellations, even though most of the teams were completely unaware of the situation.
At the same time, the organizers were in regular contact with the frontline command and security officials in the municipality to see if there were any changes in the instructions.
In addition, the European Union and the managers of the competition who arrived before the national teams in Israel were updated on the situation, and even held talks with them and the heads of the delegations to reassure them.
An impressive victory in the opening, photo: Oren Aharoni
Israel's opening match brought them together with Bulgaria, with the hundreds of spectators who arrived giving a home atmosphere and pushing the blue and whites to succeed.
With the loud music accompanied by cheers and encouragement - even in the case of a true alarm, nothing could be heard.
No special instructions were given before the game and some even joked that this hall is the safest in the world, since even making phone calls is difficult to get out of it because of the massive structure.
Indeed, just before the end of the half, a small drama took place when all the people in the hall received alerts on their cell phones that there were alarms in Tel Aviv, but they were aimed at the center and the south of the city and not the north, and even though the MDA personnel present in the hall went to look for a protected area, there was no need for that after The Kbat test.
There was no need to enter the areas protected by the barrier, photo: Oren Aharoni
And there was also a game.
Assaf Levy's apprentices pressed on the gas from the start and did not let the guests get back into the game for a moment, when at the end the scoreboard showed a light 17:38.
The standout was Assaf Sharon with 8 goals, which he achieved already in the first half before getting a few minutes of rest.
Tomorrow (Monday) the games will continue, when Israel will meet Georgia and close the group stage against Lithuania (all games at 19:00), with the first two teams from each group advancing to the semi-finals that will take place on Friday.
The champion of the tournament will win a pair of tickets to the U-19 World Championship and the U-20 European Championship in 2024.
Tomorrow the Israeli national team against Georgia, photo: Oren Aharoni
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