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Gaza rescuers on September 16 began sifting through the debris of a bombed-out seven-storey apartment building that had collapsed overnight according to a Reuters report from the site. The civil defence service placed the death toll at 12 including five children with 14 injured and nearly 100 believed trapped beneath the rubble. Raed Al-Dahshan director of Gaza City’s civil defence service said at least 10 families had resided in the structure and that signs of life remained under the wreckage. “We are still hearing voices from under the rubble so there is still hope to find people” Dahshan stated.
Rescue workers from the civil defence along with personnel from United Nations agencies and Egypt’s relief body participated in the operation a Reuters dispatch indicated. Alessandro Mrakic head of the U.N. Development Programme’s Gaza office described conditions as difficult owing to the absence of proper machinery. “The situation as you see is tragic because we don’t have the equipment and machinery that is needed” Mrakic said according to the report. “So there are actually people that are digging with their bare hands. We need to prepare for more deaths.”
A United Nations rapid damage and needs assessment released in April 2026 estimated that recovery and reconstruction in Gaza would require 71.4 billion dollars over the next decade with 26.3 billion dollars needed in the first 18 months. The assessment found that 371 888 housing units had been destroyed or damaged while physical infrastructure damages reached 35.2 billion dollars. A separate UNOSAT satellite analysis from June 2026 determined that approximately 82 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip were damaged with more than 201 000 affected in total.
Shifa Hospital authorities reported that at least 12 people including four children had been killed with 15 injured and dozens unaccounted for an Associated Press account from the scene noted. The building in western Gaza City had been partially destroyed during an earlier Israeli strike which compromised its structural integrity according to local witnesses cited by multiple outlets. Video footage verified by reporters showed civil defence teams and residents using bulldozers and manual methods to free survivors including young children taken to hospital by ambulance.
Gaza’s civil defence has warned that approximately 400 buildings stand at immediate risk of collapse especially with winter approaching according to statements relayed in Reuters coverage. Palestinian and U.N. officials have attributed the shortage of heavy equipment to Israeli restrictions on imports into the territory while Israel has stated that its curbs seek to prevent such machinery from reaching militant groups. The incident forms part of a pattern in which dozens of multistorey structures have given way after sustaining war damage with similar events recorded throughout the conflict.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has documented more than 73 000 deaths across the territory since October 2023 with the civil defence recovering over 630 bodies from rubble since November 2025 a United Nations Human Rights update from September 2026 indicated. The ministry estimates that more than 8 000 people remain missing under debris from destroyed buildings. Officials have called for unrestricted access for investigators and equipment to document cases and mitigate further losses in the ongoing recovery effort.
