A Bittersweet Homecoming
Heading home at last after 39 days under siege in the Church of the Nativity, Salah Ajarma bought a bagful of candy and stopped first at the house of a neighbor who had been expelled from the church to Gaza.

``This is from Daddy,'' he said as he gave the bag to his neighbor's 3-year-old son, who would not see his father today.

Then Mr. Ajarma walked home, where his mother and sisters flung their arms around him after he walked in the door.

It was the end of an ordeal, but for Mr. Ajarma, 29, the homecoming was bittersweet, because some of his friends were many miles from their loved ones, and seemed destined to remain so for years to come.

``I'm sad,'' he said, ``because of the people who were expelled."

As well-wishers streamed through his home at the Aida refugee camp, Mr. Ajarma watched intently as his banished friend, Samed Khlayel, was shown on Palestinian television from Gaza, talking to his wife and children by telephone in a live broadcast. ``Everything's O.K here, and you are with your people in Gaza,'' said the wife, trying to put a brave face forward.

Other Palestinians who were banished to Gaza were also featured on the program, draped with black-checkered Arab headscarfs, their names on the screen preceded by the title ``fighter.'' Isolated by a fence and military checkpoints and with little opportunity for movement outside its borders, the Gaza Strip is effectively cut off from the West Bank.

Mr Ajarma, a billboard advertising dealer, seemed preoccupied with the experiences of the siege at the church, during which, he said , 8 Palestinians were killed and more than 20 wounded by Israeli gunfire. The Israelis said they had fired only at armed men, but the Palestinains said that unarmed civilians were also killed by army sniper fire.

Mr. Ajarma recalled how he and a friend nursed a wounded Palestinian in the church for weeks before he could be evacuated. He described food running out, to the point where the people were eating one meal a day, usually a soup consisting of a little rice and mostly water.

Medical supplies were also lacking, leading to inadequate treatment of the wounded, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/10/international/middleeast/11HOME-Y.html