Ten-story Ramat Gan building evacuated over fears of collapse

A 10-story building in a Tel Aviv suburb was evacuated Wednesday over concerns it was about to collapse, police said.

Residents were instructed to leave the building on Ruth Street in Ramat Gan before police and civil engineers carried out a thorough inspection and assessment.

A preliminary investigation found that the risk of collapse was due to construction work on a nearby building.

Twenty-eight construction workers have died on building sites so far this year, and two passers-by have also been killed, according to a Facebook group documenting accidents at building sites.

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On Tuesday, Wissam Ja’as, from the Wadi Ara area of northern Israel, died after being electrocuted last Thursday during construction of a wall in the Talmei Elazar moshav.

On Monday, two workers fell to their deaths from scaffolding on the 15th floor of a site in the town of Rosh Ha’ayin. The two men, Ibrahim al-Hadidi and Rami Bader, were Palestinian residents of the West Bank. Later in the day, Ben Yajun, a worker from China, fell and died while plastering in the central Israel town of Lod.

Hadas Tagari, who established the coalition against construction site accidents, described the series of deaths as the result of a “multi-system failure.”

“The police, whose responsibility it is to investigate, say that the safety manager does not give the appropriate professional evaluation. The State Attorney’s Office, for its part, says that the investigations are conducted negligently and therefore there is difficulty in submitting indictments,” Tagari told Hadashot news.

In September 2016, lawmakers renewed calls to improve safety standards at construction sites and set up a parliamentary inquiry into construction workers’ deaths after six construction workers were killed in the northern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Hahayal.