Official claims deadly Gaza house fire caused by party stunt

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian official says last week’s massive apartment fire in the Gaza Strip was ignited accidentally by a man using gasoline in a party stunt, but did not explain how investigators reached that conclusion. The blaze killed 22 members of the same family and there were no survivors who could have described the events. Gaza’s Hamas-appointed attorney general added on Sunday the death toll reached 22, without elaborating. He told reporters that a member of the Abu Raya family accidentally set off the deadly blaze when he began preparing a gasoline-fueled party trick in the living room during a celebration that had brought together three generations of the family. It was the deadliest incident in Gaza in recent years outside of the conflict with Israeli-Palestinian conflict.