Hibah Ali Eid and her husband Haytham from the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza delivered quintuplets on Thursday, and named the infants after famous Palestinian leaders.
The three boys were named Khaled, after Hamas leader in Damascus Khaled Mash’al; Mahmoud, after Mahmoud Az-Zahhar Minister of Foreign Affairs for the de facto Hamas government, and Ismail, after Ismail Haniyeh, the de facto Prime Minister in Gaza.
The girls were called Mariam, after Mariam Farahat also known as Um Nidal, elected into the Hamas-lead government in 2006. Umm Nidal is also known for the involvement of her sons in attacks on Israel. Three of her six sons died in the course of their efforts.
The second daughter of the couple was named Fatima, after Fatima An-Najjar who died when she walked into a group of Israeli soldiers and detonated a bomb strapped to her chest.
I once wrote a musical tribute to Fatima An Najjar, the grandmother who blew herself up while lightly injuring three Israeli soldiers, to a popular Xmas ditty.