Fathi Harb wanted to commit suicide by soldier. So he went to a protest this spring along Gaza’s border, hoping Israeli snipers would shoot him, his grandfather recalled. When they didn’t, Harb, 22, tried again, returning to another protest soon after, and again he survived.The WaPo is still spinning this as if Gazans who want to commit suicide is Israel's fault, rather than the responsiblity of the terror group that runs their lives and of the other terror group in Ramallah that actively denies them fuel, medical supplies and electricity.
Then, last month, he set himself on fire on a busy street in Gaza City, later succumbing to his injuries.
“He called his father right before he did it and told him of his plans,” his grandfather Saeed said.
Harb had been chronically jobless. He shared a single apartment with 12 family members, including his pregnant wife. It was too hard, he told his father, explaining his wish to die.
Notice that Harb didn't succeed in getting the IDF to shoot him, which must be a remarkable thing to read when the media makes it sound like Israel is randomly shooting protesters.
So think about the next example in the story:
By the time Israeli forces killed 14-year-old Mohammad Ayyoub at a protest in Gaza this April, the sprightly but troubled youth had lived through three wars. They had left him deeply traumatized. He was treated for anxiety and a violent temper, his parents said.
Upset over the U.S. decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem, which Israelis and Palestinians both claim as their capital, Mohammad told his mother he would be willing to give his life for the city. On April 20, he slipped away to a demonstration on the Israel-Gaza border, where an Israeli sniper shot him through the head.
Now, see how a "witness" described Ayyoub's death:
A Palestinian photographer who took the picture of Ayoub after he was killed said the incident happened a fair distance from the fence.
Abed Alhakeem Abu Rish on Saturday told The Associated Press he saw the teen standing about 150 meters (164 yards) from the fence. He says Ayyoub was about to take cover behind a low sand berm when he was shot and fell to the ground.
Abu Rish’s photographs show Ayoub as he collapses head first and then lies motionless in the same spot.
In fact he had already passed through the inside barbed wire fence and was headed towards the border fence. The IDF says that Ayyoub was actually trying to damage the fence when he was shot.
Now that we know that Ayyoub went to the riots specifically to get killed, can you believe that he was about to take cover when he was shot and that he was so far away? The number of people killed by the IDF who were not members of terror groups is quite small; Ayyoub must have been acting quite aggressively to attract sniper fire to kill him.
We have seen "suicide by IDF" before, and the "martyr" families are guaranteed large payments. Yet the media does not automatically ask whether these "victims" wanted to be killed and provoked their own deaths.
(h/t Irene)