"I called three of my daughters Safad, Bisan and Jenin because it is a form of resistance. Safad is 22, Bisan is 26 and Jenin, 15. Jenin was born on 25 October 1995. That day, at the same time, our forces, the Palestinian police, entered Jenin [while the Israel army withdrew following the Oslo Accords].

"That day I was listening to the news on the radio. I was in hospital with her mother and the baby was born exactly when our Palestinian police were taking control of Jenin.

"I gave the name of Safad to my first daughter because I visited the town 30 years ago. It's a very beautiful town in northern Palestine... a very beautiful area... I love Safad very very much.

"Bisan is my first daughter, she was born in 1984. After Bisan came our first son Basel, now 26. Bisan town is located in the plain of Marj Ibn Amr, in historic Palestine. My late friend Zaki Alah was a writer and poet. He used to write short stories. When we went together to visit Bisan and Marj Ibn Amr he wrote a verse... He wrote: Marj Ibn Amr don't forget me... This verse remains printed in my memory. At that time I said to myself I'll name my first daughter after Bisan.

"When I went there with Zaki... I was a teacher at that time. I was working in a Unrwa school and I took the children of the school for a trip to Marj Ibn Amer, Bisan and northern Palestine. When I saw Marj Ibn Amr I cried a lot... I have forgotten the year... [he cries].

"My original village was called El-Qubeba. It was a small village in Er-Ramla district and the distance between El-Qubeba village and Yafa was 20 km and it was 5 km far from Er-Ramla. I have been there several times. Not a single house remains. We had orange groves, around 30 dunums [1 dunum = 1.000 square meter]. I had the titles... but I have lost them...

"I have been to our farm land with my father after the 1967 war and we saw the metal gateway of our property. The gate is holed ... my father told us he himself made the hole before 1948...

"I was born in Gaza City, on 9 February 1954. I was born in a Unrwa clinic near El-Amal Hotel, in Omar El-Mukhtar St, in the Rimal quarter. We lived in the Beach refugee camp.

"Ata Abu Kersh was my teacher of biology in the secondary school and he was the headmaster of the prison school in 1972, in Gaza City, in Saraya Gaza Central prison. In 1972 I was jailed and Ata Abu Kersh at that time was the director of the school in the Israeli jail [under Fatah rule, Ata Abu Kersh became under secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture].

"When we passed the Tawjihi [immatriculation exam] in an Israeli prison in Gaza City in 1972 from Egypt came plenty of teachers to supervise the exams. In brief, we were in occupied Gaza, in an Israeli jail, with a Palestinian headmaster in the school jail and the former Egyptian rulers of Gaza [till June 1967] came to monitor the exams in jail... because till the establishment of the PNA we were following the Egyptian curriculum.

"I was arrested in February 1972 in the Beach RC when I was 18. I was released after one year, in 1973. After the Tawjihi I wanted to study at Ein Shams University in Cairo. There was no university in Gaza at that time. Once the students got the Tawjihi they had to wait for one year in Gaza... because Egypt accepted around 1.000 students every year but it took a year for the registration.

"That year, in October 1973, broke out a war between Egypt and Israel and the students remained in Gaza and instead to wait for one year we waited for two years. The ICRC used to take the students to Egypt and returned them to Gaza... because Egypt and Israeli were enemies.

"In 1975, the ICRC took us from Gaza to El-Arish in Egypt and Israeli buses transported us from El-Arish to the Suez Canal through the Sinai peninsula [since June 1967 the Egyptian desert was occupied by Israel]. And the ICRC delegates were coming with us!!

"The first time I went to the university it took a long time... We left Gaza at 4:00 and reached Cairo at midnight, we were boys and girls together. I stayed in Egypt from 1975 till 1980. Every year we returned home in the same way and went back to the university. It was before the Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israrel, but there was already some sort of agreement between Egypt and Israel. The Israeli army was stationed at the Suez Canal and the Egyptian buses used to travel from Cairo till the Suez Canal, to the towm of El-Kantara. And the Israeli buses drove in the Sinai desert till El-Arish... and my family could come to visit me!

"I became a teacher of physics. I graduated in physics in Ein Shams University and I specialized in atomic physics. In 1980 I returned to Gaza, in the Beach RC, and the Israelis ordered me not to live Gaza for ten years... and since then I'm here... Since 1980 I departed only one time... it was last year when I went to Saudi Arabia to perform the pilgrimage.

"In 1980 I found a job as a teacher in a Unrwa school... at that time any Palestinian who had been jailed by the Israelis couldn't work in a government school or with the Israeli civil administration [i.e. the military occupation]. Hence I worked in a Unrwa school as a science teacher, but for only three years. I worked thanks to a PLO's project called Abu Setta Project. This project gave a job to graduates for two or three years in a Unrwa school and the salaries were paid by the PLO.

"Afterwards I became a merchant. One day, in 1990, my friend Dr Sami Tarazi came back from the Usa with a project for the Palestinian students. The project was to teach them math, science, biology, chemistry in English in the secondary schools. We signed agreements with UK and US universities, we organized the tests in Gaza and we sent the students to complete their education abroad. I was the director of this project.

"Then came the Oslo Accords and the PNA was established and Yasser Arafat arrived in Gaza in 1994. With Yasser Arafat came the journalist Akram Haniyeh who was at that time political advisor to Yasser Arafat. I met Akram Haniyeh when he was studying in Egypt like me. Akram proposed to create El-Ayyam newspaper and he asked me to be the director for the Gaza office.

"You can take this picture of Mohammad... Mohammad was born on 1st February... I think in 1988... I have forgotten now!! Mohammad was in the resistance with El-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - Palestine - Jihad El-Amarin group. Mohammad was also working with the Presidential Guard. He told me he was a resistance fighter and he told his mother too. First he started with the Popular Front then he went to Fatah.

"One night her mother told me: 'It's midnight and your son is not at home.' I waited near the entrance. When he will be back I will beat him because he was too late, I said to myself. He came... I opened the door... He was carrying a kalashnikov... [he cries] I told him: 'You're small for carrying this...' Mohammad replied: 'The Israeli occupation threw you in jail when you were attending the secondary school. Instead to be in school you were in jail. I have terminated the secondary school, my dad...' [he cries] It was before he was killed, one or two years before...

"Mohammad didn't want to study... he only loved the resistance. I'm sure, I'm sure, Flora, I'm sure he knew he was going to die at any time. I told him once: 'We have a beautiful house and I can find a girl for you, any girl you want.' He replied: 'Not now.' I don't know what he was thinking. He said: 'I'm not one of them, I'm not one of those who get married. I cannot get married.' 'Why, my son?' 'I don't know but I'll not stay a long time alive,' he answered.

"The day he was killed... it was on 15 November... that day was a Thursday, I was home because it was a day off... it was Independence day... it was in 2007. We went to shop with my wife to the market in Beach camp, to the fish market. We bought fish and we returned home. My wife started to prepare the lunch for us and I asked her where was Mohammad. She answered: 'Mohammad has left this morning.' One hour later my mobile rang. It was around 14:00. A man, a friend of Mohammad, told me: 'Mohammad is injured, he is in hospital.'

"I called my neighbour in order to go together to the hospital. I was very tired that day. After half an hour, fifteen minutes, the mobile rang again. It was the same man: 'Mohammad has died.' I was still at home. My son Basel came... he came with his uncle. And my wife... my wife was shouting, weeping, going in every direction...

"In my home, in that moment, I was obliged to show that I was a strong man... for my four daughters and for my wife... If they saw me weeping it would be worse.

"My son Basel went to Shifa hospital with a group of youth from our neighborhood. After one hour Mohammad arrived... He was carried by young people on a stretcher on their shoulders... not by car, not by ambulance... They came on foot from Shifa hospital to my district, El-Karameh... and the distance is very long. I saw him and my wife and my daughters saw him... He didn't remain a long time after that... They took him and carried him to Sheikh Radwan cemetery.

"All the resistance fighters, all the friends of my son shot in the air [as it is the habit] and I suppose that you know... It was November and only since five months Hamas was in control of the Strip... only five months... and it was forbidden to shoot in the air under any circumstance since the first day. My son was a martyr of Fatah and despite the ban they were shooting in the air... and Hamas didn't intervene!

"All the people of the area marched, everybody marched, from 15:00 till 17:00, two hours, from my home in El-Karameh district to the cemetery, and they chanted slogans. In the cemetery we put Mohammad on his grave with the same clothes he was wearing. As you know the martyr should not be washed.

"After that all the people of my neighborhood and from all the Strip came to my house to extend their condolences. They came to my home for fourteen days, yes... instead of thee days as it is the custom. In addition, many people came because my son was from Fatah. At that time Fatah was defeated and the Fatah people were looking for every opportunity to raise their heads.

"A journalist told me El-Aqsa Brigades wanted to fire [home made] rockets at Sderot. The youth were in Beit Hanoun. The Israeli forces fired a land-land missile and Mohammad was killed, and another one was killed, from El-Bayari family, and three others were injured.

"During the period of mourning I never cried and when my friends were crying I asked them to stop... but one year later when I visited my son in the cemetery I cried!! Now, while I'm speaking with you I'm crying... When I saw a few minutes ago the pictures of my son on my computer I cried. When I eat some food he loved I cried... I don't know... It's life...

"My son used to come to visit me here... El-Ayyam has been banned by the Israelis to enter Gaza from February 2009 till July 2010. Now Hamas asks me to prevent the entry of El-Ayyam in Gaza till all the newspapers printed in Gaza will be freely distributed in the West Bank. But El-Ayyam is not a Fatah newspaper. We are not Fatah. I'm not Fatah. El-Ayyam is a company composed of different people. It's not a Fatah paper. I don't receive my salary from the PNA, but from El-Ayyam company which is independent. Why does the government of Gaza equal El-Ayyam to a Fatah newspaper? Why?... Why?..."