The death toll from Monday’s construction collapse in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hachayal neighborhood rose to four on Tuesday morning as search and rescue workers found another body under the rubble.
The search for survivors continued Tuesday morning, with four construction workers still missing at the site of the collapse.
Soldiers began a search and rescue operation on Monday afternoon with two victims successfully extracted by Monday evening.
Police received reports of a building collapse on the corner of Habarzel and Hanahoshet Streets at 11:24 a.m, on Monday, and responded within minutes.
Rescue workers continued working into the night in an effort to recover those who remained missing.
Reservist Lieutenant Colonel, Sami Yehezkel, Commander of the national search and rescue unit of the Home Front Command who was present at the site Monday night, told Army Radio this morning that, “During the work we were aware of several places where the trapped workers were.
We arrived at one and we are currently active in removing one person and reaching the rest of the trapped workers. I understood from a report by Magen David Adom [emergency medical services] that unfortunately that person was not alive.”
“Until decided otherwise, we are staying. Working as needed in order to find the people and bring them home,” Yehezkel added.
The police are under a gag order regarding the cause of the collapse but are investigating the incident.
Joint List MK Ayman Odeh said during a televised visit to victims at Ichilov Hospital that the incident demands a wider, state-wide investigation into construction workers’ conditions, many of whom are Palestinian or Arab-Israeli. “We need to establish a commission of inquiry to the phenomenon of construction accidents in recent years,” he said. “Since the beginning of the year, 32 construction workers were killed.”
