Thousands weep in Gaza
Thousands of weeping Palestinians rushed into Gaza’s streets today to mourn Yasser Arafat, clinging to flags, clutching his photograph and waving the trademark headscarf of the leader considered the national patriarch.
Black smoke from burning tires rose across the Gaza Strip. Dozens of children ran through the streets, many promising to carry out his legacy.
In the Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza’s largest, university students and supporters of Arafat’s Fatah movement gathered in shock and sadness after learning of his death in a Paris hospital.
“Yasser Arafat is inside in our hearts – in the hearts of the real nation of Palestine,” said Amar Muheisen, 22, from Gaza City as he beat his chest with his fists. “Yasser Arafat will never die.”
Palestinians huddled around radios on street corners as loudspeakers from mosques amplified verses from the Quran. Loudspeakers mounted on trucks blared Arafat’s most famous quotes.
Gunmen fired into the air – some only 500 yards from Jewish settlements. No clashes were reported amid a mood more of grief than outrage.
Dozens of Arafat’s personal bodyguards also gathered around his seaside headquarters, picking over the rubble of the structure destroyed in an Israeli airstrike to lower a Palestinian flag to half staff.
Some fired weapons in the air to salute him.
Children, already out of school for a Muslim holiday, ran through the streets, swept up in the frenzy.
One 14-year old named Ali, who refused to give his last name, wrapped a fist around a photograph of the late leader, who was waving his hand and smiling.
He shouted a famous Arafat quote: “The mountain cannot be shaken by the wind”, and ran through the streets.
“This is Abu Ammar!” he said. “He said we will raise the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem – and we will.”
Outside her tiny home in the Jebaliya camp, Namia Abu-Safia, 48, wiped away her tears and told how she felt as if a member of her own family had died.
“He is our father,” she said sobbing. “He is Palestine.”
