Gaza — This Bleeding Land

Below is an extract from my novel, Gaza — This Bleeding Land, which is currently available from Amazon in the US and UK and all good booksellers in the UK.

For obvious reasons I cannot reveal my real name. The name given me by my commander, and by which my fellow fighters know me, is Omar. It is a good strong name and like the shedding of old skin, I no longer recognise the man I was under the name that was given to me by my parents.

Speaking of which, my dear mother Mariam was eager for me follow a different path than the one taken by my elder brother, Abu. He was martyred four years ago in a Zionist airstrike and I speak to him every day.

Abu decision to join the resistance had been heavily influenced by the example of our father Uthman’s brother, Walid. He himself was martyred after returning from exile to organise the resistance on behalf of the PLO during the First Intifada.

I was only four or five when my uncle was killed and memories of him are vague. Abu, five years older than, was very close to our father’s youngest brother. Our mother always blamed Walid for planting the seed of struggle in my brother’s heart. Abu was martyred during a resistance operation against a Zionist settlement and I will speak more of him later.