Safa Omar was planning to name her baby Yasser Arafat in memory of the veteran Palestinian leader who died on Thursday -- then it turned out she had twins.
“We named one Yasser and the second Arafat,” said Omar, 32, lying in her Gaza City hospital bed under a large poster of the late president.
“Arafat was our leader and father who gave us everything, including his life, and took nothing.”
Most Palestinians revered Arafat, who died in a Paris hospital aged 75, as a symbol of the struggle for a state. Many Israelis reviled him as a “master terrorist.”
Yasser Arafat was a popular choice of name for boys born in Gaza and the West Bank on Thursday. Doctors said they expected many more in the days to come.
“One Arafat dies and a thousand will arise,” said one medic.
