details. I went up to Colonel Abdel-Aziz and whispered to him the Commander-inChief's instructions. Discussions in the room involved the creation of a neutral zone that might include Jabal Al-Mukabbir. This would mean that the volunteer forces under the courageous Senegalese commander Abdallah Al-Ifriqi would have to withdraw from that area. Al-Ifriqi was standing a short distance away, shouting that he would refuse to carry out any order to leave his position, even if it came from the Egyptian command. As for Abdel-Aziz, he thought that this concession would be countered by a withdrawal of Jewish troops from an important site under their control. He may have been right. But my job was to implement El-Mawawi's instructions, in which I had faith. When I explained to Abdel-Aziz the point of view of the Commander-in-Chief, he too agreed and asked me to explain the instructions to those attending. The meeting ended at about 3.00 in the afternoon. It had produced several resolutions. Jewish forces were to withdraw from the areas they had occupied within 24 hours. There would be an immediate cease-fire along the entire front. A third resolution called upon the concerned governments to consider the creation of a neutral zone and, as I recall, to give their responses within a week.
Al-Batal Ahmed Abdel-Aziz Street in Mohandessin is the Bermuda Triangle of fast food, where Cairo's teens converge, of a hot summer night, for an ice cream or a donut. Of the man whose desire to know "the outcome of the battle" even as death was almost upon him, there is no trace. Only his name remains -- for posterity. The memory, at least, of a hero