Four Killed in Gaza as Sand Embankment Falls on Tent Camp
Heavy rain collapsed a sand embankment onto a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah on Sunday, November 8. Civil Defense says three children and one woman died. The UN says about 950,000 displaced people in Gaza live in flood-risk areas.
Four people were killed in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, November 8, when heavy rain brought down a sand embankment onto a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah. Civil Defense, Gaza's rescue service, said the dead were three children and one woman. Five other people were pulled out with injuries.
Later accounts of the collapse put the death toll at five. Rescuers said at least three tents were crushed.
Civil Defense first reported two women among the dead, then corrected the count to three children and one woman. It named the children as siblings Mariam and Salah Nabhan and Habiba al-Zein.
Torrential rain began on Saturday and flooded tents across the territory, with water reaching nearly 5 feet in places. First responders could answer only about 10% of roughly 2,100 distress calls, according to the UN.
Witnesses describe the rescue
"It was a horrifying sight," said Abdul Karim al-Sahhar, 30, who is originally from Izbat Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. He said people were buried under sand and rocks, and the tent had vanished entirely.
Sahhar said the children's father was outside the tent when the bank gave way. A huge boulder lay on top of the victims, and young men broke it into pieces to reach them. Another witness, Abu Darbali, said the collapse sounded like an explosion.
Video posted to social media showed people breaking rocks with hammers and clearing sand with shovels by flashlight.
Scale of the storm damage
The UN said more than 26,000 households had reported damage to shelters or belongings after the weekend storms. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that about 950,000 displaced people live in areas at risk of flooding, nearly 400,000 of them in high-risk zones.
The Hamas-run government media office said about 70,000 tents were flooded on the first day of rain. It also reported dozens of cracked walls and roofs collapsing, causing injuries, some critical.
Toby Fricker, a spokesperson for Unicef, said the collapse "was waiting to happen". He said Gaza is "extremely overcrowded" and that "people are just trying to find a place wherever". Unicef has been working to improve drainage in camps.
About 2.1 million Palestinians are crowded into roughly 30% of Gaza's land, and much of that area is prone to flooding. The International Organization for Migration's regional crisis coordinator said people are living in areas that "would not be normal if we were not in this time of conflict".
Dispute over shelter supplies
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people live in tents or ruins, and reconstruction has not begun. A US-brokered ceasefire last year called for rebuilding, but negotiators have not agreed on terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw troops from about two-thirds of the territory. Israel says no reconstruction can happen before Hamas is disarmed.
Mustafa Qazzaat, a member of the Gaza City council, said Israel has not allowed prefabricated homes since the truce and has admitted only limited numbers of tents. Aid workers said restricted "dual use" items, such as metal tent poles, forced them to use wooden poles made from food pallets.
Cogat, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees aid to Gaza, said more than 91,000 tents and over 8,200 trucks carrying tarpaulins, blankets and winter clothing have reached the territory. It also said fuel and engine oil convoys have supplied pumping.
