Gaza rescuers on Wednesday combed through the wreckage of a bombed-out apartment building that collapsed overnight, killing at least 12 Palestinians, including five children, and trapping dozens of others beneath the rubble, reports BritPanorama.
The incident highlights the ongoing danger for tens of thousands of Palestinians who live in an estimated 2,000 damaged buildings due to Israeli airstrikes across Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes on a vehicle killed at least two Palestinians, one a child, and wounded seven others in what appeared to be a double tap strike in the northern Gaza Strip neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, according to medics.
The Israeli military stated it had struck a militant in the area, without elaborating, and separately reported targeting a Hamas commander in the Rafah Brigade, as per a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Rescue workers from the civil defense reported that at least 12 people, including five children, were killed and 14 others injured when the seven-storey building collapsed. Nearly 100 more people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.
A video obtained by Reuters showed rescue workers trying to pull out two people from under a collapsed wall. Another video circulated on social media depicted Gaza’s civil defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Basal, carrying a little girl, wrapped in a blood-stained scarf, in his hands.
Raed Al-Dahshan, the director of Gaza City’s civil defense service, mentioned that at least 10 families lived in the collapsed building and that there was still hope of finding survivors.
“We are still hearing voices from under the rubble, so there is still hope to find people,” said Dahshan.
Alessandro Mrakic, head of the U.N. Development Programme’s Gaza office, noted that rescuers from some U.N. agencies were participating in the rescue efforts, which he described as challenging due to the lack of proper machinery. Egypt’s relief agency was also involved in rescue operations.
“The situation, as you see, is tragic because we don’t have the equipment and machinery that is needed. So there are actually people that are digging with their bare hands. We need to prepare for more deaths,” stated Mrakic.
“There are approximately 400 buildings at risk of collapse. And we know that these buildings will collapse, especially now with the upcoming winter,” he added.
