Salama Maarouf, head of the government media office in Gaza, warned on Monday of the risk of 220 buildings "at risk of collapse" in Gaza due to damage sustained during the recent Israeli war of extermination on the Strip.

Marouf said in a statement that "technical crews from the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and Civil Defense have inspected the damaged buildings, and 220 buildings have been identified as being at risk of collapse so far."

He explained that "these buildings pose a direct threat to the lives of thousands of citizens living inside or around them, especially given the ongoing Israeli blockade and the ban on the entry of heavy equipment needed to remove rubble or reinforce damaged buildings."

Marouf pointed out that "the residents of these buildings were evacuated and those surrounding them were warned, but the continued siege and the ban on the entry of heavy equipment are hampering efforts to deal with this crisis."

Over the course of months of Israel's genocidal war, the North Gaza Governorate was subjected to a policy of "urban annihilation," according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, which saw widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure.

On Monday morning, 21 people survived after evacuating the residential building they were living in half an hour before it collapsed in the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip. The building sustained extensive damage from Israeli bombing during the war of extermination.