'My son died because of unemployment'

A Palestinian in his twenties set himself on fire in Gaza on Monday. Arabstoday talked to his father Sufian Abu Nada, who said that his son took this decision because he was too desperate to find a job. The father denied any alleged stories that his son did it because of a fight between them. Sufian Abu Nada said that his son has made a valediction phone call to his mother shortly before the incident took place: "I wish to say goodbye to you mum. I'm leaving. I searched for a job but found none." Telling the full story, Abu Nada said that he went on Tuesday morning to wake up his son Ihab to go job-hunting as Abu Nada himself was no longer able to support hisfamily of eight on his own. "Ihab went and stayed out for a while, then he called the phone of one of our neighbours as we have no phone. He asked to talk to his mother and said goodbye to her" Abu Nada said. He added that witnesses of the incidents reported that his son was near a hospital when he suddenly emptied a bottle of gasoline on himself and set himself on fire. Ihab left secondary school because his father couldn't afford to pay for his education. He found a job in a restaurant where he was washing dishes for 13 hours a day to get a daily salary of 30 shekels ($ 7.5). He left that job as it was physically too demanding. Shortly before his suicide, he was working as a street vendor, but stopped as he was always persecuted by local police. Sufian Abu Nada said both Hamas and Fatah were responsible for his son's death: "I earn 900 shekels per month ( $225). I pay 700 shekels monthly as a rent fee for my dilapidated house, the remaining 200 shekels are being spent on water and electricity bills," he said. "The house's ceiling is too weak for protecting us either from the summer's heat or the winter's cold. We have no closets, no washing machine, no fans and no refrigerator. I'm only asking for mercy, we can't keep living like this." he added. Many people in Gaza are suffering from poverty and unemployment, topped up by the shortage in basic services like electricity supplies, which stands as a main problem in the overpopulated strip. However, the strip's residents are blaming the Hamas-led government for a big part of their problems, as they see luxury facilities built every year by the government, or built and owned privately by the top officials who don't seem to suffer as much as their people.