Gaza rescuers say five killed after storm collapses sand mound onto tents

Gaza’s rescue service said on Sunday that five people died, three children and two women, in an incident linked to the heavy rains that began the day before. “A sandy embankment collapsed onto tents housing displaced people at a shelter center south of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip,” said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense. For the latest updates on the Israel-Palestine conflict, visit our dedicated page. “Rescue teams are continuing to search for missing people,” he said.

A video circulating on social media showed dozens of men at the scene, some trying to lift a large stone slab while others dug beneath it with shovels. The agency further warned “displaced people against setting up tents or remaining near sand masses and elevated soil mounds, particularly during periods of rainfall, as these pose a real threat to their lives” and called on humanitarian organizations to provide the necessary equipment. Heavy rain on Saturday flooded tens of thousands of displaced people’s tents in war-devastated Gaza, Palestinian authorities said, leaving them without shelter.

In a statement, the government media office said that about “70,000 tents sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people were flooded on the first day” of rains. It also noted the “collapse of dozens of cracked walls and roofs, which caused injuries,” some critical, in various areas of the tiny territory. Since early Saturday, hundreds of displaced families have been seen fleeing camps in parts of Gaza City and in the central and northern areas of the territory after they were inundated by rainwater.

A fragile ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on October 10, 2025, after two years of war that erupted following the unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023. The war destroyed huge swathes of the territory, leaving most of the population displaced and often living in tents or other makeshift shelters. Despite the ceasefire agreement reached with Egyptian, Qatari, and US mediation, the Israeli army continues airstrikes and ground operations against what it says are Hamas operatives on an almost daily basis.

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