On the 15th anniversary of his martyrdom, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are missing Sheikh Yassin, the founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), who has long been a central figure in the Palestinian arena and a symbol of the Palestinian people.
On 22 March 2004, Israeli occupation forces killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, after being targeted by several rockets while returning from Fajr prayer in a mosque near his house in the Sabra neighborhood (south of Gaza City).
Sheikh Yassin's house, which once was like a beehive and an operating room, was transformed into a museum of Sheikh's holdings of no more than a bed, a cupboard, a wheelchair, some clothes and many files and books.
The entrance to the house, covered with asbestos panels, reads "Sheikh Shaheed Ahmed Yassin". Once entering the building, the visitor will need only five minutes to walk in all the rooms that have not changed anything.
The first room, where his meetings and meetings were held, is still intact, with his wheelchair in the middle, and the wool cap he was wearing when he was martyred wrapped around him.
The room ends with a narrow corridor leading to a bedroom with a Hamas flag in its corner. It includes a cupboard, a mirror and a bed next to it. It holds an iron Koran with a "Koran" on it.
The house of the humble Sheikh Yassin includes another room where his eight daughters and three sons slept before they married. The top of this room was built by the Hamas leader before he cited a few years ago a library of dozens of religious and historical books and files for lists of requests for humanitarian aid and social and political issues.
"I always accompanied my grandfather and I love to sit with him and listen to him," says Sheikh Yassin's grandson, Abdel Salam al-Zaig, 32, of Al-Jazeera Net.
"My grandfather never hesitated to help anyone who asked for them. These are lists of poor families who used to collect and provide them periodically. There is a list of university students who supervised their education expenses. Says Abdul Salam.
"I do not miss anything in this world, as I miss my grandfather. He always urged us to study and memorize the Koran and bring us religious and historical books and stories," says the eldest grandson of Sheikh Yassin, the son of his daughter Idida.
"All he was concerned about was that our generation be educated, educated and knowledgeable enough to resist the Israeli occupation," he said.
Politics and resistance to occupation were not all that preoccupied Sheikh Yassin. He was a pivotal societal figure to whom everyone resorted to solving their problems, says his daughter's husband, 'Aida', 67-year-old Mohammed al-Zayyaj.
Zayg still remembers how his neighbors and the people of his region used to solve complex social problems and succeed in solving them.
"Sheikh Yassin did not spend a day asking for help. One time an old woman wanted financial help for a son who wanted to travel for treatment. He gave her $ 100," says Al-Zayegh, who did not break a moment in his last week as a nurse. He had all his money. "
"We and all the Palestinians miss Sheikh Yassin in such difficult circumstances in which we live; he has good relations and respect for all Palestinian and Arab political parties can solve any problem," according to his daughter's husband.
The concerns of the Sheikh
Sheikh Yassin was not alone in his life at the expense of his eight daughters; he visited them at home and enjoyed a quiet Samar night, accompanied by laughter and jokes, said his daughter Fatima (40 years).
"Fifteen years after the martyrdom of my father, I still remember his beautiful smiles and smile, which I always received, how I miss him and how much we need him in such difficult circumstances as we live," Fatima told Al Jazeera Net.
"When my father heard that one of his grandchildren was ill, he would not stop asking about him and hasten his treatment until he healed. He urged my sons, my sisters' children and my brothers to study and gave them gifts when they memorized something from the Koran."
Fatima did not forget how her father, Sheikh Yassin, was keen on Palestinian national unity and urged all Hamas officials to do so because he believed that the disintegration of the Palestinian fabric would be an opportunity for the Israeli occupation to investigate its crimes against the Palestinians.