20 reported dead, dozens missing after damaged Gaza City building collapses
Hamas-run civil defense says six-story structure had previously been hit in Israeli strikes; residents said to have returned, despite safety warnings, due to lack of shelter
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At least 20 people, including eight children, were reported killed and dozens were missing Wednesday after a Gaza City apartment building collapsed, with the Hamas-run civil defense agency saying the structure had sustained damage in earlier Israeli strikes.
The six-story building, which had four apartments per floor, crumbled overnight onto nearby homes and tents in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense agency, which works as a rescue service under Hamas authority.
Agency spokesman Mahmoud Basal told AFP the building had sustained structural damage from Israeli strikes.
He said that the bodies of “20 martyrs have been recovered from the rubble of a building that collapsed… Among the dead are five infants, while dozens of people remain trapped beneath the debris.”
The number of children declared dead in the collapse rose to eight later on Wednesday. The Civil Defense also said 20 people had been pulled alive from the rubble.
The building was hit multiple times in 2024 and March 2025, leading to warnings for Gazans not to go back, Basal said.
“They have no other choice. With neither tents nor homes available, they are living in cracked, damaged buildings despite the risk of collapse,” he said.
The vast majority of structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during the war, according to the United Nations.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
According to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 73,700 people.
With large numbers of Palestinians left homeless and major shortages of construction materials, many Gaza residents have taken the risk of moving into the shaky buildings.
The civil defense agency has identified around 2,000 buildings in the Gaza Strip that it says are at risk of collapse.
The Gaza government media office under Hamas pointed to delays in the reconstruction of the Strip.
“We hold the Israeli occupation and the international community fully and directly responsible for this catastrophe befalling our Palestinian people,” it said.
Israel has allowed additional aid into Gaza since the declaration of a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued carrying out strikes in Gaza since the ceasefire, saying they are aimed at thwarting threats from Hamas and other terror groups. It has also restricted the entry of some equipment that it says could have military applications.
The Times of Israel Community.