Palestine's sole representative at the Paralympics had no hesitation when he was asked to compete in Paris at 28 days notice - and in a sport he hadn't practised in three years.
Fadi Deeb was left a paraplegic when he was shot in the back by an Israeli sniper in 2001.
Deeb lost his brother Alaa as a result of an Israeli bomb attack in Gaza last December and has lost 14 other extended family members in the last year.
The 39-year-old has had little time to prepare for the F55 shotput and last competed in track events in 2021 as a result of a shoulder injury.
Asked why he answered his federation's request to take up a place at the Paralympics at such short notice, Deeb told AAP: "I have a voice to talk about my country, and 11 million Palestinians.
"There is a responsibility on my shoulders, I'm not doing it for my career or for my name, this is for the 45,000 people killed in Palestine (in the last 11 months) and the 100,000 people who have been injured.
"The world must understand our story … Our people are a target and what is happening didn't start on October 7, it started 76 years ago.
"The world must also understand that we are not animals in a cage, we are human beings."
Deeb plays professional wheelchair basketball in France and has yet to hold a shotput ahead of his event.
Unlike athletes from the leading Paralympic nations, Deeb has to navigate Paris's public transport network in his wheelchair, taking two buses and one metro to a gym in the French capital's lesser-visited northern suburbs.
The Palestinian has prepared himself by thrusting a 10kg dumbbell above his head.
"I'm using normal dumbbells to practise the technique of the shotput," Deeb said.
"There are a lot of sad feelings when you are Palestinian from the Gaza Strip.
"I hope I can bring a medal and I will push myself for my brother, who was killed in December.
"My job is to raise my country's flag here in Paris and to show the world that as a Palestinian people, we are not finished and we will not give up."
