Khalid al-Halaq, the 60-year-old Fatah congress member who arrived earlier in the West Bank to join his group's sixth General Assembly due on Tuesday in the holy city of Bethlehem, used his stay in the territory to meet his family he hasn't met for so many years.

Al-Halaq, a Palestinian refugee who fled his home during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that ended with the creation of the state of Israel, said he left Palestinian territories with his family soon after he was born, since then he has been living in one of the refugee camps in Lebanon. "I was always dreaming of getting back home, and here I'm."

As soon as he arrived in Ramallah from Jordan, al-Halaq asked a Palestinian police patrol in Ramallah to help him finding the rest of his family. He spent nine hours searching, asking and looking with anxiety, until he finally found the house of his brother Khalil al-Halaq in the city.

The meeting was so warm, with sadness mixed with happiness and tears coming out of their eyes. Khalid said that the meeting turned into a celebration, his brother Khalil moved to the West Bank city of Ramallah right after Oslo peace agreements were signed with Israel in 1993.

"Since then, I haven't seen my brother and his children," said Khalid al-Halaq who visited in the West Bank for the first time in his life. He said that he applied several times for the Israeli side to let him visit in Ramallah, "and my request was always denied."

While dozens of neighbors, friends and relatives were coming to al-Halaq's home, Khalid said as drops of tears were still in his eyes, "at the beginning I was not able to recognize the children of my brother. Even my brother's daughter had got married and she has children, this is really exiting."

Khalid al-Halaq lived in one of the refugee camps with his family since 1948, where part of his family managed to return to the West Bank after peace was signed with Israel, but his appeals to let him get back to Ramallah "were always rejected."

Al-Halaq stayed all his life at Ein el-Helweh refugee camp in Lebanon, where he became a Fatah movement fighter and fought against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He said that Israel has been always said that he is wanted to Israel for his military activities.

It was not only Khalid al-Halaq who met his family, dozens of Fatah congress members, mainly those who came from Lebanon and Syria, said they haven't met their families and relatives for several years, and were happy to be in the West Bank to be able to see their relatives they have never seen before.

Since the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was founded in 1994 in the West Bank and Gaza, thousands of Palestinians were able to return back home after living dozens of years in the Diaspora. But the rest of their families continued living in refugee camps in Arab countries.

"It was always a dream for me to return back home. Today, thanks to Fatah conference and President Mahmoud Abbas, this dream has become true," said al-Halaq.

Local media reports revealed that Abbas had asked Israel, via secret channels of contacts, to let Fatah members enter the West Bank to join the sixth general assembly of Fatah movement. One of them is Fatah Secretary General Abu Maher Ighneim.

A Palestinian official said that Fatah conference is an attempt made by President Mahmoud Abbas to reinforce his position inside Fatah movement which had faced a series of stalemates over the past 20 years, mainly his loss in front of his rival Hamas movement in the legislative elections held in January 2006.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Ehud Barak were put under the pressure from the United States and several European countries to enable banned Fatah congress members to come to the West Bank.

Extremist Israeli right-wing parties slammed Netanyahu and Barak for yielding to the pressures and allowing wanted Fatah leaders to enter the West Bank. Most of them were involved in armed attacks carried against Israel during late 1970s and 1980s.

Fatah movement, as well as other factions announced that they are still clinging to the Palestinian refugees' right of return. Netanyahu has clearly announced that refugees will never return to the borders of his Jewish state.