Daniel did not sleep that night.
The sound of gunfire echoed in his ears, and Khalid's face haunted him every moment.
Khalid was no ordinary soldier... he was a Palestinian who had betrayed his people.
Yet his cries before he died still echoed in Daniel's chest:
"I want to live... I want a chance..."
He sat next to Yusuf, while the other was busy checking their meagre supplies.
Daniel hesitated before asking in a low voice:
"Yusuf... what is the difference between me and Khaled? Both of us fought against you... Why is he a traitor... and I am just an enemy?"
Yusuf slowly raised his head, looked deeply into his eyes, and said:
"Betrayal, Daniel... is when you stab those who trust you in the back. It is when you sell your family and your land in exchange for a house or money. As for you... you are a clear enemy. You came from your land – or from the land you claim is yours – to fight us. I face my enemies on the battlefield, but traitors... stab me in the back."He paused for a moment, then added:
"I may forgive my enemy one day... but a traitor? No. Because a traitor is not just a man... but treachery walking on two legs."
Daniel trembled at the power of his words.
He had always thought that enemies and traitors were the same, but Yusuf drew a deep line between them.
Daniel muttered:
"In the army... they told us that Palestinians are liars, traitors by nature. But now... I see that we are the ones who stole your land. Maybe... maybe we are the intruders."
Yusuf smiled bitterly:
"Finally, you're starting to see. The truth is not in slogans... but in the blood that is shed, in the houses that are demolished, and in the children who are orphaned."
Daniel bowed his head, feeling a new heaviness pressing down on his chest.
"Have I been on the wrong side all this time?"
In the corner of the tunnel, Khaled's body remained covered with an old blanket, a silent witness to the conversation that changed something in Daniel's heart forever.