At least one Palestinian was killed in Gaza on Thursday when a damaged building collapsed in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood, Al Jazeera has reported, an incident that comes as the UN’s Palestinian relief agency is warning that tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in unsafe buildings.
“Shelter needs remain largely unmet,” UNRWA said in a report on the situation in Gaza on Tuesday, adding that the UN and partnered organizations “continue to face significant challenges in bringing supplies into Gaza” as Israel continues to impose restrictions on aid entering the Strip in violation of the ceasefire deal.
“In northern Gaza, the Shelter Cluster estimates – based on field observations – that people are sheltering in severely damaged and unsafe buildings. Returning families also face the risk of unexploded ordnance,” UNRWA said.
Gaza’s Civil Defense agency said on Thursday that after the building initially collapsed, people were trapped under the rubble. The agency’s spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, reported on October 25 that a nine-year-old girl was killed when another damaged building collapsed in Gaza City.
Gaza’s Civil Defense has been working to remove hazards from buildings where Palestinians are sheltering, such as large concrete pillars or other heavy objects that are in danger of falling. There’s no sign Israel or the US will allow a real construction effort to take place in the areas of Gaza that aren’t occupied by Israel anytime soon.
The US has been floating a plan to only allow reconstruction in Israeli-occupied areas as a strategy to pressure Hamas, but it has reportedly received pushback from Arab states, who fear it could lead to a permanent Israeli occupation.
A committee for missing persons in Gaza said Thursday that around 10,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead under the rubble and called for the necessary construction equipment to recover all of the remains.
“We call on the world to send international teams to recover the bodies of the missing. We call on the world to provide the necessary equipment to recover the bodies,” the committee said.
The IDF brought several journalists into Israeli-occupied Gaza for a highly controlled visit on Wednesday, and photos captured by the news agencies revealed the massive destruction in Gaza City and other parts of the Strip. According to Reuters, the IDF reviewed all the photographs, and the news agency said it removed six at the IDF’s request.
