The Israel national handball team is controlled by the

Israel Handball Association The Israel Handball Association () (IHA) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball in Israel. Founded in 1955, IHA is a member of European Handball Federation (EHF) and the International Handball Federation (IHF) ...

, and represents

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in international matches.

Competitive record

European Championship

Best achievement

The team's biggest achievement was a performance in the European Handball Championship that was held in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 2002, where it didn't manage to go through the first group stage. In the qualifying playoff games the Israel beat the

Republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. Israel's coach in the Championship was

Shlomo Hoffman Shlomo or Szlomo is the English form of שְׁלֹמֹה, the Hebrew name of the Israelite King Solomon. It is a popular name among Jews, especially in Israel. As a mononym * Solomon, king of ancient Israel * Shlomo (beatboxing artist) or Simo ...

, and its leading players were Idan Maimon,

Vladimir Zaikman Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology T ...

Leonid Durashenko Leonid ( ; ; ) is a Slavic version of the given name Leonidas. The French version is Leonide. People with the name include: * Leonid Agutin (born 1968), Russian pop musician and songwriter *Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919), Russian playwright and ...

Dudi Balsar Dudi is a name. In the military * Dudi of Basra (''Militant leader'') also entitled as David of Basra was a 3rd century crusader and religious preacher to spread Christianity in India People Clan organisation Dudi also Dhudi is dynastically an h ...

and

Dovi Yeshua Dovi is an arrondissement in the Zou department of Benin. It is an administrative division under the jurisdiction of the commune of Zagnanado. According to the population census conducted by the Institut National de la Statistique Benin An ...

. Ever since the historic participation at the 2002 championship, the team hasn't managed to pass the preliminary round of qualifications.

Previous campaigns

World 2007 qualifiers

In the winter of 2006 the team had failed to qualify to the 2007 world championship after finishing third at the

qualifications Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) is a procurement process established by the United States Congress as a part of the ''Brooks Act'' and further developed as a process ...

– behind

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Euro 2008 qualifiers

In the winter of 2007 Israel again failed to

qualify Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

, this time to the 2008 European Championships. Despite an impressive home win 30:29 against the very strong team of

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

, Israel lost twice to Macedonia, and finished again finished third, behind Serbia and

and ahead of

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World 2009 qualifiers

In the following winter Israel met Serbian again, at the 2009 World Championships Qualifying. This time it lost both games to Serbia, and finished second (out of three) after beating

The Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a population of 54,609 ...

at both games.

Euro 2010 qualifiers

In the 2010 European Championships qualifying, held in 2008 and 2009, Israel was drawn into group 5, together with the world champions,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Israel lost both games to Slovenia, Belarus and Germany, and only won both games against Bulgaria. The team's captain was Idan Maimon, and its leading players were Avishay Smoler of German team

TBV Lemgo TBV Lemgo is a handball club from Lemgo, Germany, and is competing in the Handball-Bundesliga. History The ascent to one of the best German handball clubs was slow but steady. In the year the Bundesliga was founded, the club was still in the O ...

, Chen Pomerantz, Tom Matalon, Gal Avraham and

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Team

Current squad

Squad for the

2021 World Men's Handball Championship – European Qualification The European qualification for the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship, in Egypt, would have been contested by the teams that did not qualify for the 2020 European Men's Handball Championship and the 20 teams that played the tournament but were n ...

. Head coach: Oleg Boutenko

Former coaches

* Eugen Trofin (−1983) * Israel Brener (1982–1983) * Moshe Lagil (1983–1984) * Shlomo Hoffman (1992–2008) * Gilad Maor (2008–2012) * Dragan Đukić (2012–2015) * Per Carlén (2015–2016) * Oleg Boutenko (2016–2022) * Dragan Đukić (2022–2023) * Saar Frankel (2023–2024) * David Pisonero (2024–)

External links

*
IHF profile
{{National sports teams of Israel Men's national handball teams Handball in Israel

Handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...