The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Wednesday that the seven-storey building collapsed after previously sustaining damage in an Israeli regime bombing.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed rescue teams pulling children from the rubble while residents helped dig through the wreckage by hand.
According to witnesses and the verified footage, children’s cries for help could be heard from beneath the rubble as civil defence crews worked to reach survivors.
One video showed a young girl being pulled alive from the wreckage, while several survivors, including young children appearing breathless, were brought out and taken away by ambulance.
Raed Mahmoud, a Gaza civil defence spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that “civil defence teams are still working to recover martyrs from under the rubble and search for missing people. Until now, there are nearly 100 Palestinians still under the rubble of this building.”
He said reaching those trapped was extremely difficult because rescue teams lacked the appropriate equipment.
Local media reported that the building had previously been struck in an earlier Israeli regime bombing, leaving it cracked and structurally unsound before it collapsed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza has damaged and partially destroyed thousands of buildings across the besieged territory, while restrictions on the entry of construction materials have hindered repairs.
Many Palestinians have been forced to remain in dangerous buildings that “threaten their lives” because they have nowhere else to go “in the absence of refugee centres or suitable tents,” Mahmoud said.
The Israeli regime has also imposed severe restrictions on the entry of heavy equipment required by civil defence teams to safely clear rubble and conduct rescue operations.
As a result, rescue crews have been forced to rely largely on manual labour to reach Palestinians trapped in similar collapses, slowing emergency response efforts.