A Magen David Adom Ambulance.

JNS.org – Five people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and 12 others were wounded in the early hours of Monday morning when an explosion caused a three-story residential building in the northern Israeli city of Acre to collapse, Israel Hayom reported.

While it was initially believed that a gas explosion had toppled the building, the police are currently exploring the possibility that the blast was triggered by a small explosive device, planted on the building’s roof as part of an ongoing dispute between neighbors.

Once first responders including police, Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics, and Fire and Rescue Services teams arrived at the scene and discovered the building had collapsed, MDA declared the incident a mass casualty event. The victims were identified as Mohammed Badr (43) and his wife Hanan (38), Rayeq Sarhan (55) and his wife Najah (51), and the latter couple’s son Nasreddin (8).