GAZA -

On an old wooden chair that has been with him for decades, the 80's watchmaker Ibrahim Al-Hams sits inside his small shop in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. He is the oldest watch repairer in the small coastal strip.

Al-Hams, 82, has not pursued another profession for 6 decades or more, since he learned to repair watches from his uncle in 1958, when he was sixteen at the time.

With the succession of days and the passage of years, Al-Hams - to Al-Jazeera Net - says that about 7 hours a day he spends in his shop to repair the watches and hear the ticking of their hands, is no longer just a profession to obtain a livelihood, but rather is a "daily routine" that he cannot abandon.

Despite his advanced age, the watchmaker al-Hams continues to work daily in his shop in the southern Gaza Strip (Al-Jazeera)

Omar's story

At 8 o'clock every morning, al-Hams goes from his home in the "Yabna Camp" for refugees, adjacent to the Palestinian-Egyptian border, to his small shop, which does not exceed 3 square meters in area.

Sitting in his chair with his back arched, he eagerly engages in repairing watches with the help of a magnifying glass that he puts on one of his eyes, to see the minute parts and inspect and fix the defect.

In this camp - whose name derives from the town of "Yabna" in occupied Palestine in 1948, from which the Hams family was expelled - young and old Ibrahim al-Hams are known by his nickname "Abu Khaled".

Al-Hams was born in 1942, and he was a six-year-old child during the Nakba in 1948, when his family - like the majority of Palestinians - was forced to emigrate.

Al-Hams grew up in the alleys of the camp, and when he reached the age of sixteen he accompanied his uncle, who was a watchmaker. He says: “I mastered the profession and owned its secrets within two years, and opened my own shop, and since then I started my journey with repairing watches.”

Al-Hams did not last long, and he traveled to Saudi Arabia and worked there for 3 years in the same profession, before returning to the city of Rafah, where he married and had 8 sons and 3 daughters. 200 thousand people.

With the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2005, and the escalation of Israeli attacks, Al-Hams could not bear to remain in his shop, which he opened after returning from Saudi Arabia in the camp overlooking the Palestinian-Egyptian border, an area that was a "theatre" for Israeli incursions and daily shootings.

Prior to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza settlements in 2005, Abu Khaled was forced to close his shop and move to another shop in the market in the city center, which is the same shop he has settled in since then.

Al-Hams took the watchmaker’s profession from his uncle after he and his family emigrated during the 1948 Nakba (Al-Jazeera)

memory of the years

The years affected the health of the hams, and its heavy effects were evident in the wrinkles on his face, but it did not affect the love story that links him to the hours, despite the sharp decline in the financial return that he obtains, due to technological progress, but he says: “At my age, money Not everything.. It is the profession of a lifetime, and here in this shop I feel that I am still alive, practicing the profession that I love, and interacting and chatting with passers-by and customers.

The hams had not finished his phrase until someone waved his hand, saying peace be upon him and greeting: “Peace be upon you, uncle Abu Khaled.. How are you?” The hams feels very satisfied with what he described as loving people.

The eighty watchmaker says that he does not believe in the retirement age, and he will continue to work in this shop, which stores many memories, and has been the source of his livelihood for many decades, and through it he fulfilled his mission in raising his children.

A number of the sons and grandsons of Hams inherited the watchmaker’s profession from him, and some of them help him in his daily work, and he says: “Despite the clear decline and the tendency of young people towards mobile phones, some - especially from the old generation - love to own watches, and the shop still has its customers who come to it for repairs. their watches or buy new ones.

While the hams was holding a watch between his fingers, he was examining a malfunction, and the watches were piled up around him and teeming with the sides of the small shop, and spare parts and work tools were scattered on a table in front of him;

He said that turning the clock back on makes him feel very happy, as a patient recovering his health and returning to life again.

Al-Hams: Returning to all of Palestine will remain a achievable dream, and if our generation does not return to it, our children and grandchildren will return (Al-Jazeera)

The Nakba and the dream of return

He did not comment in the memory of that young child who accompanied his family on the emigration journey to escape the crimes of the Zionist gangs, much about his early childhood years in his hometown of Yabna inside occupied Palestine, but he - like other "generation of the Nakba" - dreamed of returning before death.

Few of the Nakba generation are still alive, and some of them go to the hams daily in their place, not to fix an hour, but to exchange conversations that usually lead them to Palestine, and the situation of the refugees after the Nakba.

Al-Hams used a popular phrase indicating life and insistence on achieving the goal, and said: “As long as there is a rising breath and a descending breath, returning to Palestine will remain a achievable dream, and if our generation does not return to Yibna and all the cities of Palestine, our children and grandchildren will return.”