Three other workers, Israeli and Palestinian, were still believed to still be trapped under the rubble more than 24 hours after the collapse at the building site late on Monday morning.
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Large numbers of police and emergency services personnel are assisting in the rescue efforts at well.
It happened on a site in Ramat Hachayal, a commercial area in northern Tel Aviv comprising high-tech businesses, restaurants and a hospital.
Spokeswoman Luba Samri said that rescue services were attempting to recover the bodies of the two construction workers. “They say some movement shook the building”.
The police are under a gag order from discussing the disaster but announced the arrest of one unidentified person.
Two people have been killed in a Tel Aviv building collapse, as rescue teams, firefighters and IDF reservists rushed to the scene amid billowing clouds of dust and debris.
Paramedics told local reporters that 18 people are injured – including one seriously.
The Israeli military has dispatched search and rescue teams in a bid to find at least five people missing, feared buried, at the scene.
The Israel-based Africa Israel firm won the tender for the project, the Tel Aviv mayor’s office said. There are also concerns that, as the site is excavated, the work may cause a secondary collapse of the remaining walls.
Col. Dudi Mizrahi said he was optimistic three others trapped are alive.
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Israel has seen an unusually high number of construction accidents in comparison to the developed world. The rescue workers need to remove the sand before they can start to the drill through the concrete, which will allow them to reach the lowest level of the parking garage.
