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Gaza City: A 17-year-old Gazan
died on Sunday, four days after setting himself alight in
desperation over financial problems, medical sources and his
family said on Monday.
Ehab Abu al-Nada from Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, set himself
on fire on Wednesday outside the city's Al-Shifa hospital,
sustaining severe burns, his father Sufian told news agency AFP.
“My son Ehab set himself on fire last Wednesday in front of Shifa
hospital and died on Sunday,” AFP quoted him as saying.
“He poured two liters of petrol on himself because he was out of
work.”
The spokesman for the medical services in Gaza, Ashraf al Qudreh,
told AFP that “on August 28, this guy was brought into al-Shifa
hospital suffering from serious burns after setting himself on
fire.”
“He was admitted to the emergency room but succumbed to his wounds
and died yesterday,” he added.
The teenager had left school last year to look for work so he
could help the family financially but had struggled to find
employment, his father said.
“He set himself on fire because of unemployment. He wanted to help
me provide for this house.
“I am a civil defense employee and my salary isn't enough, I
provide for eight people and have bank loans,” said Abu al-Nada,
40.
“I earn 2,100 shekels ($525) -- 700 goes on the rent, and 1,200 on
paying the loans, which leaves us only 200 for the rest of the
month, which isn't enough,” he said.
“He was a street vendor selling crisps. Before that, he used to
wash dishes in a restaurant for 13 hours a day earning only 30
shekels. Sometimes if there was no work he'd sit at home.
“The Hamas police were always chasing him off, to prevent him from
selling on the streets,” he added, referring to the Islamist
movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
Police spokesman Ayman al-Batinji said police had “opened an
investigation to find out the reasons behind this incident.”
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