A 20-year-old Palestinian is in a critical condition after setting himself on fire in what is believed to have been a protest over the horrific living conditions in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Fathi Herb reportedly shouted “damn Hamas” before dousing himself in petrol and setting it alight in Sheikh Radwan on Saturday night.
A graphic video of the incident shows Mr Herb lying on the ground screaming as onlookers attempt to put out the flames with rugs and buckets of water.
His family told media the young man suffered from “personal problems” and was despairing over the poverty inflicted by Hamas, the militant group which seized control of the territory in 2007.
His mother told the Associated Press her son was unable to find permanent employment and took whatever jobs he could find to support his wife and unborn first child. She said she had no idea of her son’s intentions beforehand.
“What can a man do when his wife is giving birth and he has no money for a doctor, diapers and milk?” she said.
Suicide rates in Gaza have risen sharply in the last year, a phenomenon blamed on the increasing humanitarian crisis facing the strip a decade into a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the area.
A 2017 report from the UN found that combined electricity and water crises, continued shortages of building materials and medical supplies, lack of freedom of movement and a collapsed economy where unemployment is running at 45 per cent has made the Gaza Strip “unliveable”.
Both Israel and the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority have been accused of escalating the humanitarian crisis in order to weaken Hamas’ grip on the territory, squeezing the group financially.
