GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A building housing dozens of people collapsed in Gaza City early Wednesday morning, leaving rescuers clawing with bare hands through rubble until determining that 21 people, including 11 children, had been killed in their sleep.
The sudden collapse of the building, which was known to be unstable because of damage from Israeli strikes earlier in the war, underscored how perilous and desperate living conditions have grown for the majority of the enclave’s population as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas stalls.
There’s been no reconstruction work since the ceasefire was agreed to almost a year ago. Israel has said that it won’t allow any rebuilding until Hamas disarms. Israel has allowed only a handful of excavators into Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military body charged with coordinating aid to the Gaza Strip, didn’t respond when asked if it would allow in machinery to help with the collapse.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the death toll stood at 21, including 11 children and five women, according to Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry. He said that at least 14 people were injured and rescuers had finished digging.
Around six displaced Palestinian families, according to Gaza’s civil defense, had sheltered there, despite knowing that it was teetering on the brink of collapse.
“The lack of options and alternatives left them with no other choice,” said Aboud Majdalawi, a rescuer with Gaza’s civil defense.
All of Gaza’s roughly 2 million people now live in a stretch of land that makes up less than half the territory. They remain dependent on aid and are surrounded by Israeli troops who carry out strikes or attacks on a near-daily basis.
In the aftermath of the collapse, people were searching desperately for loved ones or their remains.
A group of men were seen carrying the headless body of a child. Others sat atop a pile of rubble, pulling desperately at flashes of color they believed could be clothing worn by a survivor. All they found were dust-caked blankets wedged in the debris.
The collapse comes as rescuers in the Gaza Strip are trying to unearth hundreds of bodies from buildings collapsed by Israeli strikes earlier in the war. They have just a few working excavators and their fuel supply is dwindling.
On Wednesday, the U.N. human rights chief said that he worried that the bodies recovered so far are just the “tip of the iceberg.”
“It is heartbreaking that the loved ones of those missing for so long are only now having their worst fears confirmed,” he said. “Much of Gaza has been flattened by Israeli bombing or demolition and clearing by heavy machinery and explosives.”
The war was sparked after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage. All hostages or their remains have been released or handed over. Many recounted long-term starvation, physical and psychological abuse and, in some cases, sexual abuse.
Despite an October ceasefire that has reduced fighting in Gaza, Israel has continued to carry out strikes, killing at least 1,375 people since the agreement went into effect, according to local health officials.
The nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 73,789 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half the toll.
Alshrafi, Shurafa and Ezzidin write for the Associated Press. Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip. AP writer Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo, and Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.
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