At least five people have been killed and six others injured after an Israeli air strike hit a residential building in the Remal district of Gaza City, according to reports citing local rescue workers and hospital officials. Four of those killed were women, including an elderly Christian woman and her daughter.
The strike took place in the early hours of Saturday, 3 October, when residents of the densely populated neighbourhood were asleep. The reported target was an apartment inside the Al-Asala building. Local accounts cited by Al Jazeera said there had been no prior warning before the attack.
Hani al-Shaer, an Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Khan Younis, said residents heard the sound of warplanes shortly before three missiles struck the apartment. The attack caused the targeted flat to collapse completely, while several lower floors of the building sustained extensive damage.
A fire broke out inside the building after the strike. Palestinian Civil Defence crews were sent to the scene and worked for about an hour to bring the flames under control. Once the fire had been contained, rescuers began searching through the rubble for people who might have been trapped beneath the collapsed structure.
The rescue operation unfolded amid continuing aerial activity over the area. According to the report, Israeli drones remained in the sky while military aircraft were seen flying at a low altitude around the site. Rescue workers therefore had to operate in difficult and potentially dangerous conditions as they searched for survivors.
Officials at Al-Shifa Hospital confirmed that four women were among the five people killed. One of them was an elderly Christian woman who died alongside her daughter. Six other people injured in the strike were taken to the hospital for treatment. Details of the severity of their injuries were not immediately available.
Remal is one of Gaza City’s densely populated residential districts. The area has also accommodated large numbers of people displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip, many of whom have sought shelter in residential buildings and temporary structures. That concentration of civilians has made the impact of strikes on urban neighbourhoods particularly severe.
The incident also illustrates the difficult conditions faced by emergency responders in Gaza. Damaged buildings, fires and collapsed structures can make access to casualties difficult, while ongoing military activity can complicate rescue efforts. Civil Defence teams are often among the first responders at sites struck during the conflict, searching for survivors and recovering those killed.
The full circumstances of the attack, including the stated purpose of targeting the apartment, were not independently established in the available report. The extent of damage to neighbouring properties was also not immediately clear.
The deaths in Remal add to the continuing civilian toll in the Gaza Strip, where residential areas have repeatedly been affected by military operations. For families living in the enclave, the latest strike once again brought the conflict directly into a densely populated urban neighbourhood, leaving relatives and rescue workers to search through the remains of a damaged home.
