GAZA: Health and emergency services in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that a fire that started in a building where occupants were attending a party resulted in at least 21 fatalities and several injuries.
The four-story residential building’s top floor caught on fire in the heavily crowded Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and it took firefighters more than an hour to put it out.
Multiple injured people were transported by ambulance to nearby hospitals, and Israel—which maintains a border on Gaza with Egypt—said it would provide entry for those in need of medical care.
According to the Interior Ministry of Gaza, a preliminary examination found that the facility had been used to store significant volumes of gasoline, which fueled the fire that quickly consumed the structure.Witnesses reported hearing screams, but due to the ferocity of the fire, they were unable to assist people inside.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine, described it as a national tragedy and announced a day of sorrow.According to a statement from Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority urged Israel to open the Erez crossing with Gaza so that serious cases could be transported and, if necessary, treated outside the restricted area.
Sheikh wrote on Twitter that “the President provided instructions to provide all types of medical and other assistance quickly.”In a tweet, Tor Wennesland, the UN’s Middle East peace envoy, offered the families of those killed in the event his “heartfelt sympathies.”One of the world’s most densely populated areas, Gaza is home to 2.3 million people and eight refugee camps, including Jabalia.