At least 20 individuals were killed in a fire at a house north of Gaza City on Thursday, the head of a nearby hospital told AFP.
21 dead (possibly more) in a fire that ate up a house in #Gaza tonight.
Power shortages force people to use all sorts of alternatives, whether safe or not. May the victims rest in peace 😔pic.twitter.com/5asc12Qvyy
— Belal Aldabbour (@Belalmd12) November 17, 2022
Salah Abu Laila, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, reported that “at least 20 bodies arrived,” indicating that they had been “burned” in the fire.
Islamists from Hamas, who rule the Israeli-blocked Palestinian enclave, claimed there were multiple casualties from the firing but did not specify how many.
In response to the fire, Hussein Al-Sheikh, a top official with the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, stated that the PA had pushed Israel to open the Erez gate between Gaza and Israel to allow for immediate medical evacuations of serious cases.
Witnesses and videos that went viral on social media claimed that the entire residential structure in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip caught fire and burst into flames and smoke.
Witnesses reported hearing screams, but due to the fire’s ferocity, they were unable to reach the victims to provide aid.
There are eight refugee camps with a combined population of 2.3 million people, and Jabalia is one of them.
(with inputs from agencies)
