Thousands of Palestinians turned out Friday for the funeral of 21 people who died in a Gaza Strip apartment building fire.
At least seven children were among the dead in the blaze at Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp on Thursday night, said the head of the Indonesian Hospital there, Saleh Abu Lai.
Most of the dead were members of the Abu Rayya family. Mourners carried the coffins, draped in Palestinian flags, through crowds in the camp toward Beit Lahia cemetery for burial.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a national tragedy and announced a day of mourning on Friday
It took firefighters more than an hour to get control of the massive flames that burst through the top floor of a four-story residential building in Jabalia, one of eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million people live in one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
Details about the cause of the fire remain unclear as there were no survivors, Abu Ahmad Abu Rayya, the head of the clan, said.
“A father, his children and his grandchildren, not one of them got out alive to tell us what happened,” Abu Rayya told the crowds with a strained voice.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry said it had launched an investigation into the incident, which revealed that large amounts of gasoline had been stored at the site, possibly fueling the blaze that quickly engulfed the building.
Head of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia Saleh Abu Laila told AFP that the facility had received the bodies of at least seven children.
While the cause of the fire remained unknown, a spokesman for the civil defense unit told AFP that supplies of fuel were stored in the house.
Several Arab states, the United Nations and the European Union expressed their condolences for the bereaved families.
Palestinian officials said a nearly 15-year-long blockade on Gaza has crippled the economy and undermined their effort to upgrade the capability of the enclave's civil emergency department to fight fires, especially in high rise-buildings.
A spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that manages the Erez crossing, told AFP that Israel “will provide help... as needed” through the transit point.
Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed sympathy for the “serious disaster” in Gaza.
He said it would be right for Israel to do in order to save human lives, but it appears that there were no wounded survivors to transport.
With electricity supply sparse in the impoverished territory, domestic blazes are common, as Gazans seek alternative sources for cooking and light, including kerosene lamps.
This year Gaza received an average of 12 hours of mains electricity daily, up from just seven hours five years ago, according to United Nations data.
New dangers arise in the winter when many people burn coal for heat
