Gaza (QNN)- At least 100 Palestinians, including 50 children, remain missing after a partially damaged residential building collapsed in Gaza City early Wednesday, killing at least 14 people.
Palestinian Civil Defense teams are conducting search and rescue operations for people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of the collapsed building west of Gaza City.
The Sa’ada building was home to six displaced families, comprising around 100 people. It had previously sustained damage from Israeli shelling.
Footage from the scene shows residents clearing debris with their bare hands in an attempt to reach a young girl trapped beneath the rubble, whose cries can be heard in the video.
Palestinian Civil Defense said its teams had recovered 14 bodies, including five children, and rescued 12 people alive from the debris.
The building collapsed at around 2 a.m. while residents were asleep.
“Beneath this building there are about 100 bodies — or 100 people whose fate remains unknown,” a Civil Defense spokesperson said during a news conference.
The spokesperson urged the immediate provision of heavy equipment needed to continue the recovery operations, warning that rescue efforts are progressing slowly because first responders lack the machinery required to reach those trapped beneath the rubble.
“We can still hear the voices of people alive beneath the rubble, so there is still hope,” said Rayed al-Dahshan, director of Gaza’s Civil Defense agency.
“We expect the rescue and recovery operations to take a long time because we are working with our bare hands. The situation is extremely sensitive, and the difficulties we face are due to the lack of resources. Civil Defense needs heavy equipment so it can respond immediately.”
The spokesperson also warned that around 2,000 buildings across inhabited areas of the Gaza Strip are in similarly precarious structural conditions, with residents unable to evacuate because they have no alternative shelter.
