Four killed as sand embankment collapses onto tents in Gaza, health ministry says

Four people, three children and one woman, were killed when a sand embankment collapsed onto tents at a camp for displaced families in central Gaza on Sunday night, the Hamas-run health ministry said. Five injured people were also rescued following the incident south of Deir al-Balah, which came after days of heavy rain.

Videos from the scene showed men using the torches on their phones to search for survivors beneath boulders, sand and collapsed tents. The Civil Defence service, which operates under the Hamas-run interior ministry, called the incident a "humanitarian tragedy" and said it should prompt urgent action by international organisations to provide safe shelters and move tents away from sandy areas, slopes and locations at risk of collapse.

The collapse followed torrential rain on Saturday that reportedly flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, leaving many Palestinians without a dry place to sleep. The Civil Defence said water levels reached up to 1.5m (4.9ft) in some places and that its first responders were able to answer only 10% of the 2,100 distress calls they received.

"Protecting the lives of displaced people is an urgent humanitarian responsibility. Their tents must not become death traps beneath sand and rainwater," the service warned.

The Civil Defence initially reported on Sunday that three children and two women had been killed, but the health ministry said on Monday morning that one woman was among the dead. She was identified as Tahrir Nabhan, while the children were named as Mariam Nabhan and her brother Salah, and Habiba al-Zein.

Mustafa al-Masri told the BBC that he and other rescuers used their bare hands to dig the victims and survivors out of the sand and rubble. "It was extremely difficult. This mound was huge and wide. It collapsed onto the tent, and we didn't know what to do," he said, adding that he and young men from the camp pulled out the children and the woman. He recalled their father arriving and shouting, "My children, my children, my children, my children." Masri said he had been displaced from the northern town of Beit Hanoun and stayed in central Gaza because there was "nowhere for me to return to".

Karl Baker, the International Organization for Migration's regional crisis co-ordinator, told the BBC from Gaza that the territory's 2.1 million people are confined to only 30% of its total area, with many "unfortunately living in areas which would not be normal if we were not in this time of conflict". He said the UN agency and its partners were trying to secure enough tents and tarpaulins and improve drainage in camps to get through the winter, but warned that the aid currently entering Gaza amounts to "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. Cogat, the Israeli military body tasked with 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 have been delivered since the start of the "Gaza Winterization Plan". It added that Israel would not permit the entry of equipment that could be used for military purposes by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

An estimated 80% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the UN. More than 1.9 million people have been displaced, many of them multiple times, and 1.2 million are currently living in tents or makeshift shelters. The UN has 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, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. More than 74,640 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.