Gaza Building Collapse Kills 21, Traps Dozens Under Rubble

Rescue efforts concluded Thursday in Gaza City after a war-damaged building collapsed Wednesday, killing 21 people and rescuing 45 others.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa hospital, reported at least 21 fatalities, including 11 children. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense Service in Gaza, told Reuters that eight children were among the dead, and approximately half of the wounded were also children. The six-story al-Sa’ada building in the Rimal neighborhood, which had four apartments on each floor, housed over 110 people, including around 100 missing individuals, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense agency.

The collapse also crushed nearby tents sheltering displaced Palestinians. The building was targeted by Israeli airstrikes at the beginning of the war in Gaza, following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Nader El-Ejlah, a survivor, stated his family moved into the damaged building because they could not find other shelter. The United Nations reports that approximately 80 percent of all structures in Gaza have been damaged since the conflict began, with two-thirds destroyed.

Around 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, about 90 percent of the population, have been displaced during the war, many multiple times. Reconstruction of the territory has not begun nearly a year after a ceasefire ended major fighting. The population of more than 2 million lives confined to a third of the enclave's territory, mainly in makeshift tents or overcrowded damaged buildings.

Gaza’s Civil Defense warned that 2,000 damaged buildings currently shelter people across Gaza in unsafe conditions due to a lack of safe alternatives. Alessandro Mrakic, head of the United Nations Development Programme’s Gaza office, stated that approximately 400 buildings are at risk of collapse, especially with the approaching winter. Rescue operations are hampered by a lack of machinery, fuel, and rescue equipment, which Israeli authorities restrict from entering Gaza, claiming they would be used by Hamas.

Mrakic noted that people are digging with their bare hands. Euro-Med Monitor stated on X that the collapse should prompt the international community to pressure Israel to allow reconstruction materials and caravans into Gaza.