Four people, including three children, were killed when a sand embankment fell onto tents in central Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The collapse happened on Sunday night at a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah, a day after heavy rain flooded tens of thousands of tents across the territory.
Five injured people were reportedly pulled out alive after the incident. Videos from the scene showed men using the lights of their phones to search for survivors beneath boulders, sand and crushed tents.
Civil Defence urges safer shelter sites in Gaza
The Civil Defence service, which operates under the Hamas-run interior ministry, described the deaths as a “humanitarian tragedy”. It called on international organisations to act quickly by providing safe shelters and moving tents away from sandy ground, slopes and any spot at risk of giving way.
Torrential rain on Saturday reportedly swamped tents throughout Gaza, leaving many Palestinians with no dry place to sleep. The Civil Defence said floodwater reached as high as 1.5m (4.9ft) in some areas. Its first responders could reach only 10% of the 2,100 distress calls they received.
The agency issued a stark warning: “Protecting the lives of displaced people is an urgent humanitarian responsibility. Their tents must not become death traps beneath sand and rainwater.”
Rescuers dig victims out with their hands
The Civil Defence initially said on Sunday that three children and two women had died when the embankment came down. The health ministry later said, on Monday morning, that only one woman was among the dead. The woman was identified as Tahrir Nabhan. The children were named as Mariam Nabhan, her brother Salah, and Habiba al-Zein.
Mustafa al-Masri, a rescuer, said he and other responders had dug the victims and survivors out of the sand and rubble using their bare hands. He described the work as extremely hard, saying the mound was enormous and that it fell directly onto the tent, leaving the team unsure how to respond.
Masri said that he and young men from the camp pulled the children and the woman out by hand and then moved the children into an ambulance for the hospital. He recalled that the father arrived at the scene calling out for his children, and that the rescuers had pulled his children out as well.
Masri said he had been displaced from the northern town of Beit Hanoun but had remained in central Gaza because he had nowhere to return to. He said he had searched open areas and hills for another spot that felt suitable, without success.
Aid shortfalls leave displaced families exposed
Karl Baker, the regional crisis co-ordinator for the International Organization for Migration, spoke from Gaza about the living conditions facing the population. He said the territory’s 2.1 million residents were confined to only 30% of its total area, and that many were living in places that would not normally be used for housing outside a time of conflict.
Baker said the UN agency and its partners were working to secure enough tents and tarpaulins and to improve drainage in camps so families could get through the winter. However, he warned that the aid now entering Gaza was not enough to meet the population’s needs, describing it as “the very smallest of Band-Aids [plasters]”.
“We need more support, in-kind donations. We need funding in order to help the communities to help themselves,” he said. “We need a lot more to happen.”
UN agencies have called on Israeli authorities to allow in the specialist equipment and materials needed to improve living conditions for displaced families. The rescue operation was also hampered by the lack of heavy machinery, according to accounts from the scene.
Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for co-ordinating deliveries, said on Sunday that more than 91,000 tents, 12 vacuum trucks for waste removal, and fuel and engine oil for pumping facilities had been delivered since the start of the “Gaza Winterization Plan”. It added that Israel would not permit equipment that could be used for military purposes by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
The UN estimates that about 80% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war between Israel and Hamas. More than 1.9 million people have been displaced, many of them more than once, and 1.2 million are living in tents or makeshift shelters, the organisation said. It warned that the humanitarian situation remains dire despite the ceasefire agreed in October 2025, as Israeli air strikes and other attacks continue to hit populated areas.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Since then, more than 74,640 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.
