NABLUS, It was an ordinary night. Everything that Abdul-Jabbar Saqf al-Hait did the previous day was normal. Working, designing some commercial products and spending time between his family and work.

At the end of the working day, he received a dinner invitation from one of his clients. He is a well-known young man in the local business community and has good relationships with a number of customers. He accepted the invitation and took his wife and her sister to one of the restaurants in the city of Nablus, which has been inflamed with fire, smoke and blood for days.

In the previous days, there was a lot of news in the various media around the world about the armed clashes in Nablus, but until the moment on that night when he saw a flash of laser beam ending up at his head and his vehicle, Saqf al-Hait was not part of that news.

Today, sitting among a number of his family members without realizing much of what happened in that difficult moment, the 31-year-old Saqf al-Hait says, “I became one with one eye.”

In a corner of the living room of the house, his parents are sitting, worried about their son’s health who still is unable to walk straight since he was shot by the occupation army.

On October 25, when the northern West Bank city of Nablus witnessed one of the most brutal military offensives during which the Israeli occupation army killed five Palestinians and wounded several others, Saqf al-Hait was hit by an explosive bullet that penetrated his eye and left him with one eye.

In the latest round of Israeli military operations in the West Bank, Nablus remained at the epicenter of these events in which a new Palestinian resistance group known as the “Lions’ Den” appeared. On his way back from the dinner, Saqf al-Hait found himself in the middle of the armed clashes.

Saqf al-Hait says he was on his way home in Ras al-Ain neighborhood, located at the bottom of Mount Gerizim and overlooking the outskirts of the city, when he saw two young men falling to the ground after being shot. “They were in pain but I couldn’t tell what was going on.”

However, that bloody scene did not last long because shots were fired at Saqf al-Hait’s vehicle and a bullet hit his eye.

“The last thing I saw was the two young men on the ground after being shot,” he said.

The city residents say that the shooting continued for several hours, interspersed with many explosions that shook the old town, resulting in a large number of wounded people being taken to the city’s hospitals.

“I heard a voice calling from a distance: Go back, go back, and when I drove in reverse, bullets rained down on us,” says Saqf al-Hait.

His story was confirmed by his wife, Samar, who, with the help of her sister, rushed him to the hospital in a distraught state.

Saqf al-Hait tells his story with one eye covered in preparation for surgical operations to remove the remaining fragments of the explosive bullet that settled in it.

Days after that night, the young man, accustomed to a life full of work and travel to the far away corners of the world on business trips, does not sound optimistic.

Fortunately, the young man was still alive because if the bullet hit a little higher, it could have done more damage.

Many dreams in the life of Saqf al-Hait seem to have collapsed with the loss of his eye. He says that his world collapsed in front of him and he no longer sees it as it was before when his family was about to be murdered.

The family shows pictures of the young man after he was wounded, covered with blood, but he says that he was completely unaware of that night. “I would hear mosques calling the names of the martyrs and I was waiting for my name to be announced as well,” he said.

His father, a businessman from the city, displays pictures of his son’s past, full of optimism and always preoccupied with the graphic design of some of his son’s work when he had two eyes.

The Israeli attack that night killed a number of the city’s residents, including two barbers who were returning from work at night. There were also wounded who are still receiving treatment in the city’s hospitals as the indiscriminate shooting by the Israeli army led to a large number of injuries.

Each of the city’s residents has their own story to tell about that night. Relatively, everyone heard shooting and shelling at people and houses, and until the morning, smoke was still rising from the areas that were targeted. Nablus has become one of the cities that the occupation army raids and leaves its streets and alleys stained with blood.

Residents of the city say that a number of those who were injured by the Israeli army bullets were walking in the streets, either on their way to their homes or returning from work, including Saqf al-Hait, whose father says, “We never imagined what happened.”

On that night, crowds were seen flocking to the hospitals to check on the condition of the injured, and those who remained alive, while Saqf al-Hait was in a room “where I saw nothing but darkness and it was cold,” as he described it.

Saqf al-Hait was the first among the wounded to arrive at Rafidya Government Hospital, according to his wife. From there, he was transferred to another hospital where he had his first operation. His family did not lose hope so far because there is a ray of light in the injured eye.

The family has hope, but Saqf al-Hait looks at the world with a bleak look. “I didn’t see this moment in my worst nightmares,” he said, with his wife echoing what he said.

A year and two weeks ago today, Saqf al-Hait married Samar. The following year, life turned upside down after Saqf al-Hait witnessed the most brutal crime he was subjected to by the occupation army. As for his wife, who spent most of her life living outside Palestine, she was a witness to that crime.

Saqf al-Hait’s father described his son as an artist in graphic design, and in order to improve his skills, he traveled several times to Europe to attend workshops. During these trips, he reached deals and made many friendships. He was successful in his work.

“The world was beautiful (…) so beautiful. I got experience and I have new products that match the quality of French and Italian products,” says Saqf al-Hait. He depended on both his eyes in his work. But now has deep doubts about his ability to work with some products.

Residents of the city say that the siege imposed on their city negatively affected many sectors of the economy, especially the restaurants, which depended on customers coming from outside the city. Saqf al-Hait used to market some of his products to restaurants.

Today, there is nothing that can tell about the future of the injured young man, as he sits at home receiving relatives and well-wishers, but for his father, he sees what happened in the city as an extension of what has been going on for decades, when the occupation army attacks it, killing and wounding many young men.

The father, Abdul Karim Saqf al-Hait, said as he led his son Abdul-Jabbar from one room to another, walking slowly and carefully, “This is not something we had expected.”

From time to time, Abdul Karim makes phone calls, looking for a glimmer of hope in his son’s treatment, while the son is still talking about his beautiful and bright past that no longer exists.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency