On the very northern edge of Bethlehem, construction of the pitch began in 2020 with the aim of providing a place to practise football for more than 200 young players from the nearby Aida refugee camp.
The cramped and crowded streets contain the homes of the descendants of Palestinian families who were forced or who fled from their homes during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
On 3 November last year, as the children made their short walk from the camp for that day’s training, they found a notice pinned to the gate of the football field declaring it to be illegal.
The notice was followed by a demolition order, issued at the end of December.
“We don’t have anywhere else to play, 10-year-old Naya told me, wearing a Brazil shirt with the name of the footballing legend Neymar emblazoned on the back.
“We are building our dreams here,” she said. “If they demolish our field, they will demolish our dreams.”
I asked another young player, Mohammed, what his reaction was when he heard the news that the club was earmarked for destruction.
“I was upset,” he told me. “This is a field I really care for.”
The community fought back, posting videos on social media, launching a petition attracting hundreds of thousands of signatures as well as the reported interventions of senior officials from some of football’s global and regional governing bodies.
In its latest statement, the Israeli military repeated its claim that the football pitch, built so close to the wall, posed a security issue.
But the BBC understands that a political decision has been made to postpone the demolition order “for the time being”.