Some 220 buildings are “at risk of collapse” in Gaza due to the damage they sustained during the recent Israeli genocidal bombing campaign on the Strip, the head of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf, warned today.
Maarouf added: “Technical crews from the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Civil Defence have inspected the damaged buildings and identified 220 buildings at risk of collapse so far.”
He explained that “these buildings pose a direct threat to the lives of thousands of citizens living inside or around them, especially in light of the ongoing Israeli blockade and the ban imposed on the entry of heavy equipment needed to remove rubble or reinforce damaged buildings.”
Maarouf noted that “the residents of these buildings have been evacuated and those surrounding them have been warned, but the ongoing blockade and the ban on the entry of heavy equipment are hindering efforts to address this crisis.”
Over the time of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the northern Gaza governorate was subjected to a policy of “urban annihilation,” according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
At dawn today, 21 Palestinians evacuated a residential building they had been living in just half an hour before it collapsed in the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.