Surfers Say They will End It All Over Gaza

Avid surfers from several Gush Katif communities are threatening to take their boards out to sea on evacuation day and commit mass suicide by drowning, Haaretz reported. Settlement groups, psychologists and social workers have known about the plans of the young men, aged 16-21, for several weeks.

Some members of the group have had firsthand experience of grief when close relatives or friends were killed in terrorist attacks. Others grew up in families where parents have also threatened suicide over the upcoming evacuation.

“The report is very serious,” said Ami Shaked, Neve Dekalim’s chief security officer. “I plan to talk with the boys. These are guys who have fallen into very deep emotional distress. They have seen their parents in tough crisis situations. I believe that if I can manage to deal with the hard core of the group, which numbers 10 to 12 people concentrated in one of the settlements, the others will drop the matter.”