The death toll from the collapse of a building in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City has risen

The Civil Defense in Gaza reported that the number of victims of the collapse of a building housing displaced people in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City had risen to at least twenty people, including five children, in addition to the injury of more than 25 people, and it is believed that about a hundred other people are still trapped 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.”

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 agency added that rescue operations are facing great difficulties due to the lack of equipment and capabilities necessary to remove the rubble and reach the victims, warning that the number of victims may rise as search operations continue.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that about two thousand buildings are at risk of collapse.

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."

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.

The Civil Defense points out that “tens of thousands of displaced people are forced to live in buildings that are cracked and about to collapse due to the Israeli bombing because they have no choice despite the dangers of collapse.”