Israel Women's Basketball Team Prepares for EuroBasket Qualifiers

The Israeli women's national basketball team is gearing up for the second stage of the EuroBasket qualifiers, set to begin next week. Ahead of their campaign, captain Eden Rotberg, assistant coach Limor Peleg, and Liron Cohen, chairwoman of the Professional Committee for Women at the Basketball Association, spoke at a press conference in Hadar Yosef on Thursday. Israel concluded the first stage with a perfect record and will face Poland on November 11, Turkey on November 14, and Montenegro on November 17 in the second group stage. The first two games will be hosted in Latvia. The top two teams from the group will qualify for the European Championship finals next summer. National coach Shira Elion, the first woman to hold the position, has called up 17 players, with 13 set to participate in the upcoming window. Romi Levi, who recently joined Crvena Zvezda Belgrade after a successful college career, has received her first senior national team call-up, as has Magi Izah of Bnei Yehuda. Yarden Gerzon, returning to the national team for the first time since the 2023 European Championship, will play as a Zaragoza player from Spain. The team began training without three players competing in the EuroLeague and without representatives from Maccabi Ashdod and Elitzur Ramla, who played twice in the EuroCup this week. Israel's last appearance in the EuroBasket finals was in 2023 as hosts, and their previous qualification was in 2011.