Fadi has worked for DHL for six years. Before the current conflict, he frequented the main headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he was on friendly terms with many of the Israeli employees.
He says he misses the Israeli friends he had made .
"They know I'm not a terrorist, and I know they're good people," he said. "We don't like to speak politics. If we talk politics, we will disagree.... We were friends, not enemies. The intifada has destroyed everything between us."
Bothered that his old friends only called once to ask how he was faring under Israeli military assault, Fadi nonetheless understands the dynamics of two peoples who are each convinced that their own suffering is unmatched.
"We feel we are in a very bad situation, and they feel they are in a very bad situation," he said. "The Jews blame the Palestinians, the Palestinians blame the Israeli people. I just hope they will finish this war and then the relations will come back."
In the meantime, Fadi has had more than his share of close calls. Once he was attempting to deliver mail in the nearby town of Tubas, six miles from Nablus. With his delivery truck disabled in Jenin, he went in a taxi and arrived without trouble. But on his way back, he suddenly saw tanks closing in on the road, shooting as they advanced.
"I prayed to God," he said.
The taxi driver was a bit more practical, and hid in an alleyway. The tanks passed, in hot pursuit of other Palestinians. Fadi escaped.
The partnership between Fadi and Yaakov worked, off and on, for most of the last year. Even though the Israeli military siege tightened and civilians were frequently shot for violating curfew, Fadi attempted to do business. For him, like for most Palestinians, everything is tentative -- whether he can finish a delivery, whether he'll get shot on the road, even where he can live and make a living.
On a warm sunny day this autumn, hours after Israeli tanks rumbled through the city once again, Fadi opened two of the four metal panels from his office's front gate and waited for customers. Eventually, 20-year-old Mohammed Turaby ventured in, clutching the papers he needed to send to Kansas to be able to attend university there next year.
"When will it go out?" Mohammed asked Fadi after paying the equivalent of about $30.
"Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow," Fadi said. "Inshallah [God willing]."
Fadi laughed at himself, then pointed to another DHL motto: "We keep your promises."
"Now there are no promises," Fadi said. "Only inshallahs."
