Names of Three Victims of Tel Aviv Collapse Released

The names of three of the victims of the collapse of a parking structure in central Tel Aviv were released Wednesday. The three were named as Oleg Ya’akobov, 60, of Tel Aviv; Ahad Alhajaj, 34, from the Arab village of Beit Rima; and Dennis Diachenko, 28, a Ukrainian citizen.

Funeral arrangements for the three have not yet been announced.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Homefront Security officers and Border Guards were painstakingly digging through rubble – over 15 feet deep in some places – to find the last three missing individuals in the tragedy that saw three people confirmed as dead and 30 injured, some of them badly, in the collapse Monday.

The structure was just weeks away from operation when a crane crashed down on its lower level, toppling the entire structure on the heads of over two dozen workers and supervisors who were laboring at the site. Complicating the rescue efforts is the fact that a large amount of sand that was placed on the structure’s roof –   for the purpose of setting up a rooftop garden – covers much of the rubble. The sand has to be cleared away, as does the rubble under it – at which point rescuers hope to find the three missing workers alive.

Earlier, police announced that they had arrested a suspect in the case. The suspect is being questioned on issues surrounding alleged negligence of safety procedures at the site, although police declined to name specific charges. Police also refused to disclose the name of the suspect, saying that they would do so in due course. Names of the remaining victims have not been released yet either.