News / Palestine

Children among nine dead as blaze guts packed market in central Gaza Strip

Thursday, 05 March 2020 9:49 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 05 March 2020 10:20 PM ]

Palestinians work at the scene of a fire that broke out in a market in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on March 5, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

At least nine people, including four children, have lost their lives and dozens more sustained injuries when a fire broke out at a bakery and spread through a crowded market in a refugee camp in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Witnesses said they heard a gas explosion at the bakery in the Nuseirat camp on Thursday, before a blaze quickly reached nearby stores, workshops and cars parked along the street.

At least three residential buildings, 22 vehicles, four cinder block factories, two restaurants, a carpentry, 50 stalls, and an institute for the handicapped were totally destroyed in the fire.

Palestinian firefighters try to put out a fire that broke out in a market in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on March 5, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

Large numbers of civilians rushed to help firefighters put out the flames. Smoke rising over the refugee camp could be seen from miles away.

Health officials said four children and three women were among the dead, and 14 of the 53 people injured were in critical condition.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living standards.

Israel has also launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor infrastructure.

Last August, a Palestinian lawmaker said the economic loss imposed on the Gaza Strip by Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian enclave is estimated to have been 70 million dollars a month.

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The UNRWA head says the US decision to cut funding for the body could escalate instability across the Middle East.

Jamal al-Khodari, who is head of the Popular Committee against the Siege on Gaza, said in a press release that 3,500 factories, workshops, and businesses had shut down during the 14 years of Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.

Khodari, who is originally an academic and businessman, said the poverty rate in Gaza had reached 85 percent, and the unemployment rate exceeded 60 percent across the besieged Palestinian region.

“There is a daily closure of businesses, factories, and workshops in Gaza, which means a significant increase in the number of unemployed workers and technicians, in addition to large financial losses,” he said.

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The United States is censured over its decision to cut funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or the UNRWA.

“Palestinian economic markets in Gaza and the occupied West Bank had witnessed high rates of depression too. Sales rates retreated by 80 percent in Gaza and 50 percent in the occupied West Bank”, the Palestinian legislator highlighted.

Khodari warned that the situation in Gaza was deteriorating due to the retreat of international relief organizations.

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