The collapse of a building housing displaced people in Gaza kills at least 21 people, and dozens are under the rubble.

Paramedics and rescue workers in Gaza said that at least 21 people, including eight children, were killed after the collapse of a residential building damaged by a previous bombing, which was housing displaced people in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City, while dozens of people are still missing under the rubble.

The supervisor of the file of retrieving victims from under the rubble in the Civil Defense, Muhammad Abu Dan, said that more than ten families lived in the five-story building.

The building was previously bombed and the displaced people were forced to live there due to the lack of other shelter places. Muhammad Abu Dan added that civil defense crews are making efforts to save what can be saved and retrieve the victims from under the rubble of the building. “We sought help from the Egyptian Committee and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help recover the victims and salvage what could be saved from under the rubble.”

Witnesses told the BBC that the building was leaning to one side after it was exposed to an Israeli raid last year, but displaced families resided there due to the lack of alternative shelter.

The Gaza Civil Defense Service said that the building was severely damaged as a result of a previous bombing, and that it collapsed during the night hours while its residents, most of whom were displaced, were sleeping, and parts of it fell on nearby tents housing displaced people.

Civil Defense described the incident as a “new tragedy,” noting that its crews, in cooperation with municipal teams, have been working since midnight to reach those trapped under the rubble of the “Al-Saada” building in the industrial area.

The director of Civil Defense in Gaza City, Raed Al-Dahshan, said that there is still hope for finding survivors, adding: “We are still hearing voices from under the rubble.”

Alessandro Mracic, head of the UNDP office in Gaza, explained that some UN agencies are participating in rescue operations, but the lack of appropriate equipment and mechanisms complicates their efforts, and pushes some participants to dig with their bare hands.

Palestinian and UN officials attribute the lack of heavy machinery to Israeli restrictions on bringing them into the Gaza Strip, while Israel says that these restrictions aim to prevent equipment from reaching the hands of militants.

Dozens of volunteers, along with civil defense crews and the Gaza municipality, which lack the necessary equipment and tools, participate in search operations to rescue the missing people.

Activists published video clips showing paramedics recovering a child no more than six years old, who was injured and crying for his brother who had been killed, and the fate of the rest of his family members was still unknown, according to what Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.

Mahmoud Al-Ajla, a resident, said that about thirty-five of his relatives are still missing under the rubble in Al-Saada Building.

In this context, the Palestinian government demanded that civil defense crews and Palestinian and international rescue teams be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, to contribute to rescuing the injured and extricating those trapped under the rubble of the building.

In a statement issued by the Government Communications Center, the government called on the international community to "exercise effective and urgent pressure to allow the entry of civil defense crews, rescue teams, and the necessary heavy machinery and equipment to remove the rubble and retrieve the bodies of the martyrs from under the rubble."

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ramiz Al Akbarov, said that about a hundred people, including fifty children, were residing in the building when it collapsed, according to estimates.

He added that Egypt provided heavy machinery to support the response, while the UAE and Qatar are preparing to provide relief materials. He explained that humanitarian agencies will use the limited stocks available in Gaza to provide health care, shelter and other basic needs to survivors.

Alakbarov called for urgent approval to bring in heavy machinery, specialized equipment, engine oils and fuel necessary for search and rescue operations, stressing that saving the lives of those trapped under the rubble is still possible.

For its part, the Hamas-run government media office held the international community “directly and fully responsible for this catastrophe and the continued serious and unprecedented humanitarian deterioration.”

This is not the first incident of its kind, as dozens of cracked and damaged buildings and houses collapsed as a result of the Israeli bombing.

Civil Defense says that families live in about two thousand damaged buildings in the Strip. The head of the United Nations Development Program office in Gaza warned that about 400 buildings were at risk of collapse, especially with the approach of winter and the rainfall.

The United Nations said that humanitarian agencies support the voluntary relocation of those who wish to leave damaged buildings and flood-prone areas to safer locations, calling for the introduction of tents, blankets and other basic supplies during the next four weeks.