The clock arms showed that it was 2 o’clock in the morning. The atmosphere there was that of war. It was much like a movie scene of “violence”. But the violence was real not virtual. The tank and the war vehicles were besieging the area. The fighters were patrolling the sky. The target was two houses belonging to civilians in the middle of an open plantation in the neighborhood of Sheikh Ajleen. The tanks started shelling everywhere, even along the corridor where the family of Talaat Hamouda was taking shelter. With the shrapnel, pieces of furniture and walls were showering them. One of the missiles hit the assembled family members in the heart of the dark night as there was a blackout. A missile shattered the bodies of Moahmmed (17) and Faris (2 ½) while their mother was moderately injured.

Um Faris says, “While we were in the corridor taking refuge against the missiles Mohammed went inside the house to fetch the emergency lamp. When he came back a missile was shot at us. The missile severed Mohammed’s arm and hit me and Faris in the stomach. The pitch darkness covered the blood that was flowing from the bodies of the martyrs. Even Talaat Hamouda could not see the blood. He broadcast calls for help while crying. Even the Red Cross failed to get to his house. All that the Red Cross staff managed to do was to advise him to use lamps to illuminate the place otherwise the occupation army might pull down the house on all the injured and martyred people inside.

Faris has gone like many other martyred children. However, Faris was different. He was the only child to his mother. She had given birth to him after a 21 year journey of strenuous medical treatment. His mother said, “When I came to myself after the injury, I found Faris moving on four, moaning with severe pain, I kissed him and soon he went. Mohammed was beside me calling his brother Ihab. How difficult it is to ask a mother about her memories with her only child who was born after 21 years! Yet, this mother who is patient, and a true believer, managed to answer the question and said, “ Faris was all my life. He was my eyes’ sight.”

A short time before his death, Faris used to repeat some words which gladdened his mother. His mother now remembers how he rejoiced when he wanted to go to the bathroom as he managed to depend on himself. He used to say to his mother, “Mum, I’m going to the bathroom….. bye.” Faris liked water much; that is why his father bought a Jacuzzi in which Faris spent his most enjoyable time. His mother said, “He was exceptionally intelligent. Praise be to Allah! Allah would send them to Paradise.”

The mother remembers how his martyred brother Mohammed was clinging to Faris and says, “One day before their death, I was saying to my husband if one of the two fell martyr the second would follow suit as they both were hanging on to each other. When Mohammed kept up late while studying, he would happily accept Faris’s going up to him to wake him up in the early morning. He loved little Faris’s way of speaking ‘Momed, wake up.’ And Mohammed laughed to him.