• According to the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, the institution had at least seven children’s bodies.
• At least 21 people, including seven children, were dead on Thursday in a massive fire that broke through a residence north of Gaza City where fuel was being stored, according to official and medical sources.
• According to figures from the UN, Gaza now receives 12 hours on average per day of mains energy, up from just 7 hours five years ago.

At least 21 people, including seven children, were dead on Thursday in a massive fire that broke through a residence north of Gaza City where fuel was being stored, according to official and medical sources.

Amas, the organisation in charge of the Israeli-blocked Palestinian enclave, reported that firefighters were able to put out the fire in Jabalia, which had left burned walls and piles of black soot behind.

The civil defence organisation in Gaza acknowledged the death toll in a statement.

At least seven children’s remains have been brought to the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, according to Saleh Abu Laila, the facility’s director, who spoke to AFP.

A representative for the civil defence unit told AFP that fuel supplies were kept in the residence, despite the fact that the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

According to his spokesman, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, who is stationed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian region, called the fire “a national disaster.”

Friday was a day of mourning, with flags flying at half-mast, and Abbas pledged to send aid to the victims’ families to “ease their suffering,” according to a statement from his spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

Senior PA official Hussein Al Sheikh pleaded with Israel to open the nighttime Erez border, which connects Gaza with southern Israel.

According to Al Sheikh, this would enable the transport of seriously injured patients “in order to treat them outside the Gaza Strip if necessary.”

In response to the “severe disaster” in Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted that his personnel would help with “humanitarian evacuations of the injured to (Israeli) hospitals.

Blazes are frequent

As the fire burned and smoke billowed out the top of the concrete building, a sizable gathering of observers gathered on the street outside the multi-story house.

Jabalia is a refugee camp, although like many other Palestinian refugee camps, it now has enormous buildings and resembles a city in many ways.

Crowds lingered on the street after the fire was put out, and there were hundreds of police officers and emergency personnel present.

Since 2007, Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million people and is heavily populated. Israel claims this is required to manage threats from what it refers to as armed groups in the territory.

Home fires are widespread in the poor area of Gaza because there is a lack of electricity, and residents turn to kerosene lamps and other alternate sources of light and heat.

According to figures from the UN, Gaza now receives 12 hours on average per day of mains energy, up from just 7 hours five years ago.

When many people use coal for heat in the winter, other dangers emerge.

To ascertain the cause, Hamas claimed an inquiry was in progress.

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