The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has claimed this Wednesday that Israeli authorities authorize the "immediate, foreseeable, and sustained" arrival of construction materials and other equipment to the Gaza Strip, given the enormous existing shortages and after the collapse, during the day, of a building that has left 21 dead, including 12 minors.
According to the organization, it is essential to allow "without delay" access to "tents, tarps, repair and construction materials, fuel, and heavy machinery, in quantities commensurate with the assessed needs," given the high risk of flooding. More than 70% of the homes in the Palestinian enclave surveyed by the NRC last June reported having suffered this type of incident.
For the NRC, the sinking of the six-story building in which dozens of displaced families lived highlights "the human cost of shelter restrictions" and the "dangerous options" that thousands of displaced people are forced into to find accommodation, in a context where Israeli bombings have caused severe damage to hundreds of buildings and infrastructures, now considered "unsafe."
"Families in Gaza face an impossible choice: a damaged building that could collapse or a tent that could flood," stated in a statement the Secretary General of the NRC, Jan Egeland, who denounces that Israeli authorities first approve and then revoke requests for the entry of goods such as construction materials or emergency shelter kits.
"Israeli authorities acknowledge the desperate need for shelter but repeatedly reject even the materials whose delivery they had previously approved. We need deliveries, not promises. And we need them before winter arrives," he reiterated.
Gazan authorities, controlled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), have updated the number of deceased to 21, including twelve children, due to the collapse of the building that fell on several tents set up on a street in the city of Gaza, in the northern enclave.
The Gazan Ministry of Health has also indicated that 14 people have been injured, while the Gaza Civil Defense raises the total number of affected individuals who have required medical attention to 45 after concluding search and rescue operations.
The Civil Protection body of Gaza has emphasized that "the victims of this tragedy add to the more than 8,500 missing under the rubble in various governorates of the Gaza Strip, making an intervention to rescue them urgent," and has warned of the danger posed by "thousands" of buildings damaged by the offensive launched by Israel after the attacks of October 7, 2023.