Throbbing vitality and tense excitement permeated the grassy soccer field in the central Israeli city of Kiryat Gat on Thursday, as Israeli and Palestinian youngsters joined each other and competed in the finals of a peace-oriented soccer tournament.

Following rounds of preliminaries in the past few months, some 300 boys and girls out of over 1,500 made it to the final round of the Mini-World Cup, a 7-year-old annual event jointly staged by the Peres Center for Peace and its Palestinian partner the Al-Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue.

The young participants were split into eight teams of mixed nationalities, with each fictitiously representing a country, and played against rivals at the same age level and of the same gender.

As Israeli jet fighters howled in the sky, the young players leaped out of the perceivable antagonism between the two peoples engendered by the decades-old conflict and plunged into the games highlighting friendship and team spirit.

They dashed, jumped and shot in the field, and constant peals of cheers from the audience, including foreign ambassadors and Israeli public figures, filled the municipal stadium, which was decorated with Chinese flags, as the Chinese embassy in Israel sponsored the event this year as well as last year.

With an aim to foster dialogue and interaction between the young generations of the two neighbors, this project "emphasizes fair play, teamwork, friendship, nonviolence and mutual respect," said Gran Levy, a representative from the Peres Center for Peace.

The first busload of players came from the West Bank city of Jericho. They woke up early in the morning in order that they could get to the checkpoint early enough and arrive at Kiryat Gat on time.

"It was very hard to get through the checkpoint this morning. We waited over an hour and a half before making a detour," said Sus, coach of the Jericho team. "But all the children are so excited to be here, not just to play football, but also to meet their Israeli friends who they played with in previous tournaments."

During the past year, Sus has developed a partnership with Ovad, coach of the team from the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, and the two teams were able to play in each other's city. On Thursday, their joint team claimed the title for their age level.

At the end of the busy day, all the players gathered in the field, clapping and cheering, as eight boys from a Palestinian refugee camp performed a traditional folk dance called Debka, and some renowned guests handed out footballs signed by big names.

"The activities allow us to get to know each other through the thing that we love most: football. Through games and competition, we learn to cooperate and become friends. It is fun for us to compete in the Mini-World Cup," said local child Andre.

"The goal of these events is to bring the two sides, the Palestinians and the Israelis, together, and to bring peace and reconciliation," said Zhang Xiaoan, deputy head of the Chinese mission at the award ceremony.

"If you can build a friendly relationship with each other, you can bring peace to the region. You are the future and our hope for peace," she said to the children.