War-damaged Gaza building collapses on sheltering families, killing at least 21 including five children

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

A seven-storey apartment building in Gaza City, already gutted by Israeli strikes early in the war, collapsed overnight trapping at least 10 families inside and killing at least 21 people. Rescue workers from Gaza's civil defence, some digging with bare hands due to a lack of heavy machinery, pulled bodies from the rubble while reporting that nearly 100 more people were still believed trapped. Alessandro Mrakic of the UN Development Programme warned that around 400 buildings across Gaza are at immediate risk of collapse, with winter approaching fast.

Among the dead were six children; civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal was filmed carrying a small girl in a blood-stained scarf from the wreckage.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are living in an estimated 2,000 war-damaged buildings across Gaza, with UN officials blaming Israeli restrictions on heavy equipment for the inability to carry out safe demolitions before collapse.