Gaza martyrs including 12 children and 5 women in collapse of a residential building

Twenty-one Palestinians, including 12 children and five women, were killed and 45 others injured when a six-story residential building collapsed early Wednesday morning in the Industrial Street area west of Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of Interior announced Wednesday evening that Civil Defense teams had recovered the bodies of 21 martyrs from under the rubble after more than 15 hours of continuous work. Among the dead were 12 children and five women. The Civil Defense also rescued 45 people, including 14 who sustained various injuries and were transferred to hospitals for treatment. Other residents managed to escape.

In a press statement, the Civil Defense said that the “Al-Saada” building collapsed on its displaced residents, as well as on a number of adjacent tents, resulting in dozens of casualties and missing persons.

He added that his crews, in cooperation with the Gaza Municipality crews, have been continuing search and rescue operations since midnight to get those trapped out from under the rubble of the building.

He noted that rescue operations are underway in difficult field conditions, while civil defense and municipal teams continue searching for survivors and missing persons under the rubble, amid fears that the death toll will rise.

In a subsequent press conference, the Civil Defense confirmed that the fate of approximately 100 people remains unknown under the rubble of the six-story Al-Saada residential building, which contained 24 apartments, in Gaza City.

He warned of the potential collapse of some 2,000 dilapidated buildings in the Gaza Strip, many of which are densely populated, and called on the international community to provide the necessary equipment to extract those missing under the rubble of the collapsed building in Gaza City.