by Saud Abu Ramadan

visitors pose for a photo with a huge portrait of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during an exhibition for Palestine in Paris Nov. 6, 2004, as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is at the Percy military hospital in the sourhwest Paris suburb of Clamart. (Xinhua Photo/Chen Liqun) A journalist takes video at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat¡¯s residence in the West Bank city of Ramallah Nov. 6, 2004. Nearly 300 journalists from across the world gathered here to cover news. (Xinhua photo/Gao Xueyu)

    KHAN YOUNIS, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- In an old neighborhood of the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, it was hard to find where exactly the father and the sister of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were buried. 

    The young generation in the town did not know where the graveyard of Arafat's family was, but some aged men knew. Ibrahim al-Astal, 70, pointed at the a piece of deserted land less than 300 square meters.

    The plot surrounded by a high fence built of blocks and cement with a small iron door closed by chains, did not belong to the family of Arafat, but was donated by al-Agha family, one of the noble families in Khan Younis.

    Arafat's father Abdel Rahman al-Qedwa al-Husseini died before the 1967 war when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip. His sister Ena'am died of cancer in 1999. They were both buried there. Arafat used to visit his sister during her illness. When she died, a big funeral was recognized.

    Inside the graveyard, there were only two graves surrounded by wild grass and trees. No gardener was there to trim grass, or irritate followers and trees.

    Arafat's younger brother Fatehi Arafat, who is chairman of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, is suffering from cancer and getting a chemotherapy and radiation treatment in a Cairo Hospital. Palestinians in Kahn Younis said Dr. Fatehi Arafat might be buried next to his father and sister if he dies.

    "Arafat's family is not big compared with other leading clans in the Gaza Strip. But in spite of being a small family, it is influential," said Ibrahim al-Astal.

    Arafat himself, 75, was transferred on Oct. 29 from his headquarters in Ramallah to Percy Military Hospital in Paris after suffering from a blood disorder.

    When rumors spread all over the world that Arafat was clinically dead or he might die soon, Israeli government officials reiterated that Arafat would never be buried in Jerusalem.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said if Arafat dies, he would not be buried in Jerusalem or even in the West Bank and the only place for him would be in Gaza.

    Palestinians said if they fail to convince the Israelis to bury Arafat in Jerusalem or the West Bank, Gaza would remain the only choice, and the family's graveyard would be the exact place. Besides Arafat's family graveyard, there were two cemeteries in Gaza City, one to the east, where a vast majority of Palestinians who were killed by the Israeli army were buried, the other inside the city, where Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas and his successor Abdel Aziz Rantissi were buried. Enditem