Alarmed by rise in Gaza suicides, Palestinians blame Hamas, PA

Palestinians took to social media to express outrage over the increase in suicide rates, with many holding Hamas and the PA responsible for the harsh economic conditions in the Gaza.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh [file] (photo credit: REUTERS)
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh [file]
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Suicide rates are increasing in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said on Saturday after the death of three Palestinians in separate incidents.
Several other cases of attempted suicide have been reported in the Gaza Strip in the past few weeks, the sources said.
Palestinians took to social media to express outrage over the increase in suicide rates, with many holding Hamas and the Palestinian Authority responsible for the harsh economic conditions in the coastal enclave.
Sleman Alajoury, a 23-year old university graduate, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. In his last post on Facebook, Alajoury wrote: “This is not a futile attempt. This is an attempt at salvation. Complaining to none other than God is a humiliation.”
A Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip said that Alajoury had been previously arrested several times by Hamas security forces because of his political activities.
Sufyan Abu Zayda, a senior Fatah official in the Strip, said that Alajoury “could not stand the state of loss, oppression, poverty, unemployment, and the absence of hope for a decent life.”
Mahmoud Meri, an unemployed university graduate, commented: “The rule of the [Hamas] military in Gaza Strip is driving young people to commit suicide. Hamas is responsible because it has closed all the doors to the young people.”
Also Saturday, 21-year-old Ibrahim Yassin died of wounds he sustained when he set himself on fire at the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip last week. In the past four years, the Strip has witnessed several cases of self-immolations.
According to the sources, the self-immolation was due to economic hardship, despair and unemployment.
On Friday, another man from Shati camp, 24-year-old Ayman Al-Ghul, reportedly jumped to his death from the fifth story of a building. It was not immediately clear why Al-Ghul committed suicide.
Hours later, a 30-year-old woman, whose identity was not revealed, attempted to take her own life by hanging in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was reported to be in critical condition.
The sources said that the woman was married to the son of Nour Abdel Latif, a leader of an extremist Islamic Salafi group. The woman tried to kill herself after learning that her husband had married a second wife, they claimed.
Last month, another two suicide cases were reported in the Strip – both by jumping from tall buildings.
The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) recently called on Hamas to prevent the recurrence of suicide cases in its detention centers. The appeal came after the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior announced on May 29 that Muaz Ahmad Abu Amra, 19, committed suicide by hanging himself inside his prison cell. Abu Amra is said to be the third Palestinian detainee to commit suicide in a Hamas detention facility in the past three years.
The PLO’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) expressed concern over the increase in suicide rates in the Gaza Strip and attributed the phenomenon to “poverty, hunger, destitution, high cost of living and soaring unemployment rates.”
The DFLP said in a statement that the rise in suicide rates was a “dangerous indicator that harms Palestinian society and threatens its social fabric.” It held Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fully responsible for the “terrible economic and social deterioration, as well as the continued violation of public freedoms and democracy and the absence of social justice.


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