Seventeen people have committed suicide since the start of 2020 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian human rights organization said on Monday, expressing concern about the impact of living conditions in the impoverished and overcrowded enclave .
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" We have recorded 17 cases of suicide and hundreds of attempts, especially among young people, " since the beginning of the year, Samir Zaqout, deputy director of the organization Al Mezan, told AFP, citing " the extreme poverty ”, difficult living conditions and lack of freedom of expression as reasons for suicide. It is a " significant increase in the number of attempts, the equivalent of tens per month, " he alerted.
Overwhelmed by an unemployment rate of 43% before the health crisis of the new coronavirus, the Gaza Strip led by the Islamist movement Hamas is one of the poorest regions in the Middle East with around 80% of its population resorting to aid according to the UN.
The World Bank estimates that the poverty rate there was 53% before the health crisis and that it could go up to 64% in the enclave subjected to an Israeli blockade for more than 10 years, intended according to the Hebrew State to contain Hamas, its enemy to which it has waged three wars since 2008.
Gaza police spokesman Ayman al-Batniji said 12 people have killed themselves since the beginning of the year and urged not to exaggerate the magnitude of the suicide issue in the enclave. According to police, 32 people committed suicide in 2019 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave of two million inhabitants wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.