The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality said the building, on Nahalat Binyamin Street, was slated for demolition before its unexpected collapse. Residents were told to stay away from the scene.
The Fire and Rescue Authority said it was conducting searches at the site alongside police and Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics to rule out the possibility of anyone trapped under the rubble. It added that five construction workers inside the building were able to escape moments before it came down.
Footage from the scene shows people running from the site as the building came down, sending dust billowing across the busy street. Police closed several roads in the area.
In 2021, a residential building in Holon collapsed after authorities evacuated 16 families due to safety concerns. The evacuation was carried out after reports that there had been an explosion in the building on Serlin Street.
When firefighters and rescue workers arrived at the scene, they observed cracks in the building. Some residents who tried to leave their homes said they could not open doors because the building’s infrastructure had shifted, police said.
Some 80,000 buildings in Israel in danger of collapse
Following the 2021 incident, the Israel Builders Association warned that as many as 80,000 buildings in Israel, with about 300,000 apartments, are in danger of collapsing and must be reconstructed in the coming years to avoid calamity.
“We published this in a report that we submitted to the government in 2017, but this is something we have been saying for years,” the association’s then-deputy director-general Shay Pauzner said.
“The message is that Israel needs to start thinking strategically about this because we are in the danger zone.”
Police announced that, due to the collapse, several roads in the area had been closed.