Mourning as house fire kills 21 in the Gaza Strip

SMA NEWS – GAZA
Crowds on Friday mourned the deaths of 21 Palestinians who perished in a tragic fire in their apartment in Jabalia refugee camp on Thursday evening.
Tens of thousands on Friday took part in the funeral of the victims — most of whom were women and children — of the house fire that struck the Abu Raya family in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Jabalia camp is the largest of eight camps in the Gaza Strip, with a population of more than 2 million Palestinians living in harsh economic conditions.
A grandfather and grandmother, two sons and two daughters, their wives, husbands and children died in the most tragic accident in the Gaza Strip in 2022.
Civil Defense could not rescue any of the victims before their bodies were consumed by the fire on the third floor of the residential apartment, where the family was gathered.
The family’s neighbors accused firefighters of arriving about 40 minutes late to the scene of the fire, which lasted between 90 minutes and two hours.
Local authorities, led by Hamas, accused Israel of preventing the entry of necessary equipment for the Civil Defense as a result of the blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has lasted for more than 17 years.
The government media office in Gaza called on the international community to press for lifting the blockade in order to aid Civil Defense, “which suffers from a shortage of supplies.”
Initial investigations by the Ministry of Interior showed that the family stored gasoline, which caused the fire to intensify and spread.
A specialized committee was formed to investigate the cause of the fire.