A stall owner at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda’s market committed suicide due to financial hardships after being unable to open his business for roughly two months due to the coronavirus health regulations, Army Radio reported on Sunday.
Shop owners at the market, and other open-air markets around the country warned the government that they need financial help to survive the heavy losses due to the long period of closure.
Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion said that he is “horrified and pained by the news.”
He called upon the government to “open the market immediately” and warned that “any delay might cost human lives.”
Calling the reported suicide “a painful and avoidable death in the war for public health” Labor leader Amir Peretz called on the government “to make it clear it will stand on the side of those who are (financially) hurt (both) employees and business owners.”
Peretz is expected to assume the role of Finance Minister in the next government should his party approve of the terms under which it is to join Blue and White and take part in a coalition government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.