Gaza collapse kills 21, including 12 children, officials say

Gaza authorities said Wednesday that 12 children were among 21 people killed when an apartment building collapsed in Gaza City after being damaged in earlier Israeli strikes.

The six-storey building, which had four apartments on each floor, collapsed overnight onto nearby homes and tents in the Tal al-Hawa area, according to Gaza's civil defence agency, which works as a rescue service under Hamas authority.

The civil defence agency said the building had housed more than 100 displaced people and had sustained damage from previous Israeli strikes. It said rescue teams recovered the bodies of 21 people after hours of work and helped transport 45 injured people to hospital.

Gaza's interior ministry and health ministry, both operating under Hamas authority, gave the same death toll and said it included 12 children and five women.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said the building had been hit multiple times in 2024 and in March 2025, leading to warnings for people not to return. “They have no other choice. With neither tents nor homes available, they are living in cracked, damaged buildings despite the risk of collapse,” he said.

AFP footage showed the building reduced to a large pile of shattered concrete as rescuers and volunteers searched the rubble and carried out the dead. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it supplied materials to help the search effort at the request of local authorities.

The United Nations says the vast majority of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes during the war between Israel and Hamas. Gaza's civil defence agency says about 2,000 buildings in the territory are at risk of collapse.

Israel launched strikes on Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, according to official figures cited in the item. The ensuing Israeli military campaign has killed more than 73,700 people, according to Gaza's health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

Israel has allowed additional aid into Gaza since the declaration of a US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, but has kept carrying out strikes and has restricted the entry of equipment that it says could also have military use.