"I am afraid all the time," said Jameel Zbeida, his uncle, the 48-year-old patriarch of the extended family. "There's not ever a bullet fired that I don't think is directed toward Zakaria."
Zbeida's 21-year-old wife, Alaa, and year-old son, Mohammad, move from house to house and see him sporadically. She is pregnant with the couple's second child, his uncle said.
Zakaria Zbeida, an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander, passes the offices of Jenin's governor on July 31, hours after he and his men set the building on fire.
(Mohammed Ballas -- AP)
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"Some weeks Zakaria sees his son every day, sometimes a month goes by and he can't see him," the uncle said. "Sometimes the only time his wife can see him is passing in the street."
Still, Zbeida said he had no regrets about his chosen path or about the suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in bars, restaurants and on buses.
"They killed my mother," he said. "She was a civilian. How can they expect their civilians not to be targeted?"
He conceded, however, that he could not be a suicide bomber.
"You become a suicide bomber when you are no longer looking for a remedy," he suggested. "I still have hope there'll be a time when the Palestinian people stop being oppressed.
"When I had a son last year I became more determined to resist," said Zbeida. "I have to grab back his rights for him to live in peace. If the situation remains the same, he's going to have the same kind of life I'm living. I would like him to live in peace and security and freedom in a Palestinian state."
He glanced about nervously as an Israeli drone, a remotely piloted aircraft, whined overhead.
"I do have one regret," Zbeida said. "I'm sorry I couldn't provide a better life for my child."
Crude Politics
When it comes to local politics, Zbeida's precarious daily routine has not deterred him from working alongside Palestinian authorities -- or from confronting them.
Ask Qaddoura Moussa, the new governor of Jenin District. On July 29, four days after Arafat appointed him governor, Moussa sat at his desk and delivered a frank endorsement of Zbeida.
"He is part of this government," Moussa said. "He will never act individually without coordinating with us."
Two days later, Zbeida and about half a dozen gunmen broke into Moussa's office. They removed the photograph of the smiling Arafat from the wall for safe keeping, splashed gasoline over the governor's desk, chairs and floor, then set the office ablaze as a cameraman from al-Jazeera, the Arabic language satellite network, followed them.
