‘Nowhere to go’: Gaza’s damaged buildings turn deadly

A war-damaged building collapses in Gaza City, killing at least 21 Palestinians and exposing fears of unsafe ruins.

Family members react after losing loved ones in a building collapse in Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Leaning heavily on the arm of a relative, Hayat al-Ajlah moves slowly between the hospital beds, scanning the faces of the injured.

She is looking for her eight-year-old daughter, Dalia.

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Hayat has not seen her since they were pulled from beneath the rubble of the al-Saada building in western Gaza City early on Wednesday, when the war-damaged structure collapsed over their heads.

“I woke up to check my phone,” the 37-year-old Hayat said. “Suddenly, I heard a sound like something cracking. It felt like something was falling from underneath us.”

Moments later, the building came down, killing at least 21 Palestinians .

Hayat found herself trapped beneath the rubble, surrounded by dust and darkness, with family members screaming for help.

“I heard my 74-year-old father calling for my 12-year-old son Yasser. ‘Yasser, Yasser,’ he was calling, and then his voice disappeared,” she said. “I panicked and started screaming for my four children.

Hayat al-Ajlah’s 12-year-old son Yasser, who survived the building collapse in Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

‘We survived by a miracle’

For nearly an hour, neighbours and civil defence workers worked to pull Hayat, her children and some of the other residents from the rubble. But Hayat knew that others were trapped deeper inside the building.

“My father and mother’s voices disappeared because they were in the part where the floors collapsed on top of each other,” she said through tears. “We were closer to the side of the building that tilted, so we survived by a miracle.”

Nine members of Hayat’s extended family were killed, she said, including her parents, four of her siblings, and three of her nephews and nieces.

Her four children survived, although her daughter Dalia was taken to hospital with a serious head injury.

The collapse had come suddenly, but Hayat said there had been warning signs.

“My mother was afraid of the building, and my father was planning to find another place,” she said.

The family had been displaced from Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood to Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, during an earlier phase of Israel’s genocidal war , before returning about two months ago.

With few alternatives, and many in Gaza still living in tents because of Israeli restrictions on reconstruction , the family moved into an empty apartment on the third floor of the damaged residential building after a friend of Hayat’s father told him it was available.

“My father’s friend told him there was an empty apartment on the third floor. It was severely damaged, but my family wanted to get out of the tent and escape its harsh conditions,” Hayat said.

Many members of her extended family were in the building when the tragedy struck because they had been preparing for a celebration – a family wedding planned for next week.

“We never expected this tragedy. The whole family is either dead or injured,” Hayat said.

Residents and neighbours had long feared that Gaza City’s al-Saada building was unsafe after it was damaged during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Families wait at al-Shifa

At Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, relatives of the victims have gathered in grief and shock, waiting for the lengthy recovery operation to continue and for news of those still missing.

Among them was the Saada family.

Umm Mahmoud Saada, in her 70s, stood crying for her son Mahmoud, his wife and their children.

Mahmoud, 38, was the father of six girls and a boy. Neither Mahmoud nor his family survived.

He had been living displaced in southern Gaza and only returned to Gaza City a month ago, she explained.

“He had a tent in the middle of the street and was exhausted [living in it], and his financial situation was very difficult,” his mother said. “A relative showed him this place, so he settled there temporarily. We did not know it would be his end.”

She recalled seeing her son the day before.

“Yesterday, he visited me. We prayed the noon prayer together, ate together and then he left,” she said. “All our loved ones are leaving us, and our hearts are breaking day after day. Why is all this happening to us?”

Mansour Bakroun was nearby when the building collapsed in Gaza City, and rushed to help [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Rescue with little equipment

The search operation has been prolonged by a severe shortage of heavy machinery and other essential equipment, a direct result of Israeli restrictions on imports into Gaza and reconstruction.

Palestinian Civil Defence said its teams had worked for hours to reach people trapped beneath the building, but had been forced to rely on limited and basic tools. The shortage made it difficult to clear the large amounts of concrete and rubble and reach those still underneath.

Mansour Bakroun, 56, had been sitting in front of his tent when the building collapsed before dawn.

“The building is around 150 metres [about 500 feet] away. At first, I ran back, calling for my family to flee,” he said.

Once the dust began to settle, he ran towards the building, where residents were already trying to rescue those trapped.

Mansour said the building had been visibly damaged since the beginning of the war.

“Every day, something would fall from it … a piece of a wall, a stone,” he said.

“People left, but those who stayed had nowhere to go,” he added. “They had no other place.”

Another man living nearby, Huzaifa Mohammed, said that he had long been afraid of a collapse.

“Every day, I imagine these buildings collapsing,” he said. “Every day, pieces of stone and walls are falling, and people ask: Where should we go?”

Huzaifa said the sight of children being pulled from the rubble had left him struggling to understand what he was witnessing.

“When I see a little girl brought out with her head crushed, I ask myself: What if this were my daughter or my son?” he said.

Huzaifa said people had spent years living among damaged buildings and warnings of danger, with few places to go.

“How long are we going to keep living like this?” he said. “Are we only going to come out and condemn what is happening? We need solutions. We need someone to look at our situation and ask: How much longer can this continue?”

加沙城一栋受战争破坏的建筑物倒塌，造成至少 21 名巴勒斯坦人死亡，并暴露了人们对废墟不安全的担忧。

加沙城一栋建筑物倒塌，家属痛失亲人 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/半岛电视台]

加沙城，加沙地带——哈亚特·阿吉拉赫（Hayat al-Ajlah）倚靠在一位亲戚的胳膊上，缓缓地在病床间移动，扫视着伤者的脸庞。

她正在寻找她八岁的女儿达莉娅。

以色列“双击”空袭导致加沙一名学童死亡，以下列出三起空袭事件中的第一起。

埃及总统塞西拒绝将巴勒斯坦人从加沙驱逐出境（共3条，此为第2条）

挪威主权财富基金在以色列种族灭绝期间从以色列资产中获利（共3项，此为第3项）

自从周三清晨，哈亚特和她从加沙城西部萨达大楼的废墟下被救出后，哈亚特就再也没见过她了。当时，这座饱受战争破坏的建筑物倒塌在她们头上。

“我醒来查看手机，”37岁的哈亚特说。“突然，我听到一声像是什么东西裂开的声音。感觉好像有什么东西从我们脚下掉了下来。”

片刻之后，大楼倒塌，造成至少 21 名巴勒斯坦人死亡。

哈亚特发现自己被困在废墟下，周围是尘土和黑暗，家人在尖叫着求救。

“我听到我74岁的父亲在喊我12岁的儿子亚瑟。‘亚瑟，亚瑟’，他一直在喊，然后他的声音就消失了，”她说。“我惊慌失措，开始尖叫着寻找我的四个孩子。”

Hayat al-Ajlah 的 12 岁儿子 Yasser 在加沙城的建筑物倒塌事故中幸存下来。[Abdelhakim Abu Riash/半岛电视台]

“我们活下来简直是个奇迹。”

近一个小时里，邻居和民防人员努力将哈亚特、她的孩子和其他一些居民从废墟中救出。但哈亚特知道，还有一些人被困在建筑物的更深处。

“我父母的声音消失了，因为他们当时就在楼层坍塌的地方，”她哽咽着说。“我们离倾斜的楼房一侧比较近，所以我们能活下来简直是个奇迹。”

哈亚特说，她的九名亲属遇难，其中包括她的父母、四个兄弟姐妹和三个侄子侄女。

她的四个孩子都幸存了下来，但她的女儿达莉娅头部受重伤，被送往医院。

坍塌发生得很突然，但哈亚特说之前已经有一些预警信号。

“我母亲害怕那栋楼，我父亲正计划另找住处，”她说。

在以色列种族灭绝战争的早期阶段，这家人从加沙城的舒贾耶亚社区流离失所到加沙中部的代尔巴拉赫，大约两个月前返回。

由于选择不多，而且由于以色列对重建的限制，加沙许多人仍然住在帐篷里，哈亚特的父亲的一位朋友告诉他，受损住宅楼三楼有一套空置的公寓，于是这家人搬了进去。

“我父亲的朋友告诉他三楼有一套空公寓。虽然损毁严重，但我们一家人想搬出帐篷，逃离那里恶劣的环境，”哈亚特说。

悲剧发生时，她的许多亲戚都在大楼里，因为他们正在准备庆祝活动——一场计划于下周举行的家庭婚礼。

“我们从未预料到会发生这样的悲剧。全家人要么死了，要么受伤了，”哈亚特说。

加沙城的居民和邻居们一直担心，在以色列对加沙发动种族灭绝战争期间遭到破坏的萨达大楼存在安全隐患。[阿卜杜勒哈基姆·阿布·里亚什/半岛电视台]

家人们在希法医院等候

在加沙城的希法医院，遇难者家属聚集在一起，悲痛和震惊之中，他们等待着漫长的遗体搜寻工作继续进行，并等待着失踪者的消息。

其中包括萨达一家。

70多岁的乌姆·马哈茂德·萨阿达站在那里，为她的儿子马哈茂德、儿媳和孩子们哭泣。

38岁的马哈茂德是六个女儿和一个儿子的父亲。马哈茂德和他的家人都遇难了。

她解释说，他之前一直流离失所地生活在加沙南部，一个月前才返回加沙城。

“他当时在街中央搭了个帐篷，住在里面很疲惫，经济状况也很困难，”他的母亲说。“一位亲戚给他看了这个地方，所以他就暂时住在这里。我们没想到这会是他的终点。”

她回忆起前一天见过儿子。

“昨天他来看我了。我们一起做了午祷，一起吃了饭，然后他就走了，”她说。“我们所有的亲人都离开了我们，我们的心一天天碎痛。为什么这一切会发生在我们身上？”

曼苏尔·巴克鲁恩当时就在加沙城附近，大楼倒塌时他立即冲上前去帮忙。[阿卜杜勒哈基姆·阿布·里亚什/半岛电视台]

装备简陋的救援行动

由于以色列限制向加沙和重建地区进口物资，导致重型机械和其他必要设备严重短缺，搜查行动因此被延长。

巴勒斯坦民防部门表示，他们的救援队已连续工作数小时，试图营救被困在建筑物下的人员，但由于工具有限且简陋，救援工作被迫中断。工具短缺导致清理大量混凝土和瓦砾以及营救被困人员变得异常困难。

56岁的曼苏尔·巴克伦当时正坐在帐篷前，黎明前帐篷突然倒塌。

“那栋楼离这里大约150米（约500英尺）。一开始，我往回跑，喊着让家人赶紧逃命，”他说。

尘埃落定后，他跑向那栋建筑物，那里的居民已经在试图营救被困人员。

曼苏尔说，自战争开始以来，这座建筑就明显受到了损坏。

“每天都会有东西从上面掉下来……一块墙板，一块石头，”他说。

“人们离开了，但留下来的人无处可去，”他补充道。“他们没有其他地方可去。”

住在附近的另一位男子胡扎伊法·穆罕默德说，他一直担心会发生坍塌。

“我每天都在想象这些建筑物倒塌的情景，”他说。“每天都有碎石和墙体掉落，人们不禁会问：我们应该去哪里？”

胡扎伊法说，看到孩子们从废墟中被拉出来，他感到难以置信，无法理解自己所目睹的一切。

他说：“每当我看到一个头部被砸碎的小女孩被抬出来时，我都会问自己：如果这是我的女儿或儿子呢？”

胡扎伊法说，人们多年来一直生活在破损的建筑物和危险警告之中，却几乎没有去处。

“我们还要这样生活多久？”他问道，“难道我们只会出来谴责正在发生的事情吗？我们需要解决办法。我们需要有人审视我们的处境，然后扪心自问：这种情况还能持续多久？”