GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Rizk Abu Sitta climbed up to the top of the Radio Israa tower above the Dahdouh building facing Al-Azhar University in Gaza City Feb. 9. Though some observers at first thought he was a worker performing a repair, he was trying to commit suicide. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the young man standing between the iron bars on the top of the tower.

Police officers also joined the crowd and prevented people from going up to the rooftop. One of the workers at the radio station told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “One of the building residents told us that there was a man on top of our tower, thinking that he was one of our employees. We immediately cut off the power to the transmission tower and informed the security services.”

Al-Monitor managed to go up to the rooftop, where the tension among the police and the man’s relatives was clear. One of the police officers said, “We did not climb up the tower that the man had climbed as we feared he might throw himself off. We are trying to communicate with him through his cell phone.”

Abu Sitta was standing between the bars, not moving a muscle, covering his face with his hands. The man seemed to be well aware of the danger he had put himself in, and his grip on the iron bars showed that he was reluctant to let go.