The key facts

  • A wall of a damaged building collapsed onto a tent in the Ard al-Mufti area of the Nuseirat camp; the number of casualties is unknown
  • The day before, a landslide in Deir al-Balah killed two women and three children — Civil Defense attributed it to heavy rains
  • According to the Government Media Office, the storm flooded more than 70,000 tents; the UN had warned of risks for about 950,000 people

New incident in Nuseirat

Late Monday evening in the central Gaza Strip, a wall of a damaged building collapsed onto a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians. The incident occurred in the Ard al-Mufti area of the Nuseirat refugee camp; medical sources reported casualties to the agency Anadolu. The exact number of casualties and the severity of injuries were not known at the time of publication, nor was the cause of the collapse.

Second such case in two days

The collapse came a day after a landslide buried tents in nearby Deir al-Balah, killing two women and three children and wounding several others. Gaza's Civil Defense attributed that incident to heavy rains. Thus, in two days, at least two cases have been recorded in the same area of the Strip in which bad weather and damaged structures led to casualties among people living in tents.

Scale of the storm's impact

According to the Strip's Government Media Office, the storm, which began on Friday evening, brought heavy rain and wind to Gaza: more than 70,000 tents were flooded and dozens of walls collapsed. Back in October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that around 950,000 Palestinians were living in displacement sites with a moderate or high risk of flooding, and that about 294,000 families needed winter shelter assistance. The outlet notes that as winter approaches, the risks for families living in flimsy tents or near damaged buildings are increasing.