Gaza building collapse kills 20, traps dozens under rubble | Gaza News

Rescuers comb wreckage of a bombed-out apartment building that collapsed overnight in Gaza City.

A war-damaged residential building has collapsed in Gaza City, killing at least 20 Palestinians, including women and children, and trapping dozens under the rubble.

The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Wednesday at least 20 people were killed, including five children, and 14 others were injured when the six-storey building collapsed overnight.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed rescue teams pulling children from the rubble, working alongside residents who dug by hand. According to witnesses and the verified footage, children’s cries for help could be heard from beneath the wreckage as civil defence crews worked to reach survivors.

One video showed a young girl pulled alive from the wreckage, and several survivors emerging from the rubble, including young children appearing breathless, before being taken away by ambulance.

Mahmoud Basal, a Gaza civil defence spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that “civil defence teams are still working to recover martyrs from under the rubble and search for missing people. Until now, there are nearly 100 Palestinians still under the rubble of this building.”

He said it was extremely difficult to reach people because rescue teams lack the appropriate equipment.

Local media reported the building had previously been struck in an earlier Israeli bombing, which left it cracked and structurally unsound before it collapsed.

Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza damaged and partially destroyed thousands of buildings across the besieged territory, and Israel has restricted the entry of construction materials needed for repairs.

Many Palestinians are forced to stay in dangerous buildings that “threaten their lives” because they have nowhere else to go “in the absence of refugee centres or suitable tents,” Basal said.

Israel has also imposed severe restrictions on the entry of heavy equipment that civil defence teams need to safely clear rubble and carry out rescues.

The shortage has left rescue crews relying largely on manual labour to reach people trapped in similar collapses, slowing response times in emergencies.

“This is not the first collapse of a building and we fear that it may not be the last one,” Yahya Al Sarraj, the mayor of Gaza city, told Al Jazeera.

He said the municipality and the civil defence were “paralysed,” and although they are working hard to rescue people, their tools are inadequate.

The Government Media Office in Gaza said it holds “the Israeli occupation and the international community fully and directly responsible” for the incident.

“The collapsed building, consisting of six floors, with four residential apartments on each floor, had been directly targeted during the genocidal war, weakening its structural integrity and ultimately causing its collapse,” it said in a statement.