The night was quiet except for the drops of water falling from the tunnel ceiling.
Yusuf sat in his usual corner, holding a small notebook, leafing through it slowly.
He did not mean for Daniel to see it, but his eyes fell on a picture of a little girl with her hair tied in two braids, smiling innocently despite the fact that the picture appeared to have been taken in front of a crumbling wall.
Daniel whispered hesitantly,
"Your daughter?"
Yusuf looked up at him, silent for a long moment.
Then he slowly closed the notebook and placed it on his knees.
He took a deep breath, as if deciding something serious, then said:
"Her name is Salma. She's eight years old. She has a little brother, only six months old."
His voice was steady, but his eyes were boiling inside.
He took a sip of water, then continued:
"I was a vet. I had a small clinic in Gaza. My whole life was spent among animals and fields. I knew nothing else. Until one day... one day that changed everything."
He paused for a moment, then added in a choked voice:
"They bombed my family's house. My father and mother were killed. My brother was killed. My first son... he was in his grandfather's arms at the time. No one survived. Only my wife and daughter remained.
"Daniel froze in place.
He didn't know what to say.
All the images he had conjured up in his mind about the "Palestinian fighter" were now
shattering before a man who had lost his family in a single night.
Yusuf continued, his eyes fixed on the void:
"At that point, I no longer saw any meaning in life. I left my job. I joined the resistance. Not because I love war... but because I had nothing else to lose. I just wanted to prevent others from experiencing what I had experienced."
Daniel stared at him, unable to respond.
The words stuck in his throat, but he finally muttered:
"I... I'm sorry."
Yusuf smiled bitterly:
"Don't apologise. You didn't kill them with your own hands. But your army did. And your army brought you here."
His voice was calm, but it was like a knife stabbing Daniel in the chest.
For the first time, he felt that the wall between them was not one of enemy and friend, but of human being and human being... one who had lost everything, and another who was beginning to wonder if everything he believed in was a big lie.
That night, neither of them slept.
Yusuf kept turning the pages of his notebook, and Daniel kept staring at that small picture... a picture of a child he did not know, but who haunted him like Yusuf's voice haunted him in his nightmares.