Safa6a , صفاطة

Guys, just wondering, any of you knows a game called "صفاطة"? You could know it in a different name so I will explain how it works:
-Description: A 3x3 grid turn based game.
-Players: 2 players
-Tools: Board, 2 sets of 3 pieces (usually we us
ed to play on a board drawn on sand, 3 pieces of stick and 3 pieces of paper "mka3bal")
-Initialization: Players put their pieces on the grid in a turn based manner, pieces can be anywhere but they can't form a horizontal/vertical line of size 3.
-Game play: Each player get one move per turn, in which he must move one of his pieces one step either vertically or horizontally.
-Goal: Get a straight line first.
-Challenging? I remember it was, at least for us when we were kids, you had to plan how to interrupt your components plans and at the same time work on your plan to achieve that line.

Why am I bringing this up?
I was working on an XO homework, and it hit me, we used to play this game a lot, but now, I don't recall seeing kids playing it at all, so am just wondering, what's the origin of this game and stuff.
In the image below, you can see a rough sketch of the game (the usual thing), and the pieces of two players (green vs red) in a classic start up position. The game is pretty much solved, and can go in endless loops, but for kids, It can be challenging (and by kids I mean ~first grade), and I wonder if this could be expanded to larger grids or dimensions.

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Best,