Mohammed Azmy Ferwana was killed by Israeli soldiers on June 25, 2006, the date that changed the fate of the Gaza Strip for more than a decade. On that day, fighters from three Palestinian military factions tunneled under the eastern Gaza border, attacked an Israeli military post and captured Gilad Shalit, an Israeli-French soldier.

Ferwana participated in the deadly operation, which was named "The Fleeting Illusion." Organized by three Palestinian resistance factions, the operation’s aim was to capture Israeli soldiers to exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

One year later, when Hamas pre-empted a suspected Fatah coup in 2007, Israel dubbed Gaza a “Hostile Province” and intensified the blockade it had gradually imposed since its “disengagement” (removal of approximately 8,000 illegal settlers) in 2005.

For five years, despite punishing every Gazan and using all its intelligence power and spies, Israel was unable to locate and extract Shalit. Finally, in October 2011, Israel made a deal with Hamas to free Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

After the 2006 operation, Ferwana’s militia colleagues returned safely. But his body remains in Israeli custody, and its fate is unknown to his family.

Um Mohammed (mother of Mohammed), says, "Gilad has returned to his mother, so why does Israel prevent me from seeing my son’s body? I want to bid farewell him, to see his face for the last time, to bury him and visit his grave.”

Unfortunately, his family suspects they will never see him again. They believe that Mohammed, like many fallen Palestinians, has been hidden away in the Israeli Tomb of Numbers.

According to the National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of the Fallen and Clarify the Fate of Missing Persons, launched by the Al-Quds Center for Human Rights, Israel may be the only country in the world to officially impose penalties on dead bodies. For this purpose, it has set up secret cemeteries known as Tombs of Numbers, where it is holding an unknown number of Palestinian and other Arab bodies.

Bodies in the secret cemeteries are given a simple burial, with each grave surrounded by small stones and marked by a numbered metal plate. The numbers are recorded in files that contain information about each body. The families of the dead are not allowed to visit or even know where their loved ones are located. The National Campaign and other human rights NGOs have documented four of these cemeteries to date, as revealed in recent years by Israeli and foreign press.

The Al-Quds [Jerusalem] Center, a Palestinian human rights NGO established in 1997, estimates the number of bodies in these tombs at 242.

Historically, many deals between Israel and Arab countries or resistance movements have been negotiated to free prisoners and return dead bodies. The latest known deal was concuded in 2008 between Hezbollah and Israel to free five Lebanese detainees and the remains of 199 Palestinian and Lebanese fighters in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war.

Um Mohammed participates in weekly protests organized by the relatives of Palestinian prisoners at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza, where mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children of prisoners come to demand freedom for their loved ones.

She also helped found the National Committee, to document the missing and pressure international bodies to compel Israel to reveal the fate of their relatives. But it has all been to no avail. She and other parents still don't know the fate of the bodies of their children.

Who was Mohammed Ferwana?

"I raised my children on the love of Allah and Palestine. We belong to Him and to Him we will return. We are not Hamas. We aren't affiliated with any Palestinian faction," Um Mohammed insists.

As a youth, Ferwana was happy with his university sociology studies, she recalls, and had a good job with the General Security Service of the Interior Ministry. Nonetheless, he felt great pain for his imprisoned fellow Palestinians who were forced to spend the flower of their youth in Israel’s brutal jails—often with no charge or trial, or for resistance activities that are legal under international law. Today, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, there are 5,300 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom 4,643 are from the West Bank (including 295 from occupied East Jerusalem), 526 are from the Gaza Strip and 131 are Palestinian Israelis.

Thus, Ferwana willingly participated in the daring raid to capture Shalit. History had proven that the only way to win the freedom of most Palestinian political prisoners was through such capture-and-swap operations. He chose this form of resistance independent of any particular political movement; in fact, in his will, he forbade any faction from even paying the cost of his funeral.

Every faction that participated in the operation asked Um Mohammed to join it and lead a women’s wing, but she refused.

“My husband and I refused any offers of payment or affiliation because our son sacrificed himself for Allah and for Palestine, not for any ‘side’,” she says.

Dreams of freedom

For months before the operation, Mohammed tried to convince his mother to accept his will to fight for the freedom of his people, as well as to soften the shock in the event of his sudden death. He did not want to go without her acceptance. Each time he saw his mother, he would speak to her about the rewards in heaven for those who sacrifice for a pure cause.

One Friday, the holy day when family members gather, his mother brought him a plate of fruit. He said to her, “Mother, you see these fruit? The fruit of paradise are even more delicious.”

Um Mohammed was afraid; she didn't want her beloved son to die. Her youngest daughter Ameera was born with a physical disability after losing her twin at birth, and Um Mohammed spent years caring for her, traveling to several countries for 18 surgeries. She also established a small association in her name called Ameera, “”the princess,” to help care for other disabled children in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Ameera was able to graduate from university and get engaged, thanks to her mother’s hard work. The last thing such a dedicated mother wanted was to lose one of her children.

Ferwana insisted that he would not carry out his wish without her acceptance. “You can take a rest from Ameera now,” he said. “It’s time to strive with me.” His gentle pleas finally succeeded in changing her mind.

“Since the fate of death can come to anyone in any place, I accepted his will to sacrifice for the freedom of his people. If it was not Allah’s will that he die that day, it would be another day,” she says. "When I accepted his will, I felt I had released the spirit of a bird that was jailed by a mother's love and fear for her little child.”

On June 25, 2006, the shocking news reverberated through his neighborhood. His brothers woke to hear people shouting in the street. His mother sat silent.

Um Mohammed wore her best traditional clothes, which she had sewn for Mohammed's wedding. She prepared her home and welcomed mourners.

Some of people coming to their home were strangers, including journalists and foreigners. One claimed to be a French journalist but then admitted the truth: “I’m here on behalf of Gilad Shalit’s family. What do you want in exchange for helping us return him?”

Um Mohammed, who had no idea where either Shalit or her son’s body was, replied simply: “I want all prisoners—male, female and children—to be free.”