Mohammed Hilles at the home of his son, two months after the Hamas raid in August

As night fell on Gaza on August 2, the leaders of the Hilles clan realised they could resist the enemy no longer. Their men had battled for more than 13 hours, since dawn, in a futile attempt to stop the security forces of the Hamas government from overrunning the family compound in the Shajaiyeh neighbourhood of Gaza City. As machine-gun fire pounded Hilles homes and rocket-propelled grenades rained down, the men surveyed their losses. Nine members of the family had been killed and more than 100 wounded, including six women and 17 children.