Gaza: Landslide buries tents – health authority reports four dead in Gaza
After heavy rain, a sand embankment collapsed onto the tents of displaced families near Deir al-Balah.
Quick Look
- A woman and three children died in a landslide in a tent camp near Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.
- Heavy rains had caused a sand embankment to collapse, falling onto the shelters of displaced families.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The Gaza Strip has been the scene of a war since October 7, 2023. Many displaced families live there in makeshift tent camps under precarious conditions.
Three children and a woman died when a sandy embankment collapsed onto tents in the center of the Gaza Strip following heavy rain, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
As medics told Reuters, heavy rain late Sunday evening washed away a rocky sand barrier that borders a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip. According to reports, a woman and two of her children, aged 8 and 6, were killed when the dam burst. Another child aged four also died and six other people were injured.
Heavy rains and strong winds flooded and collapsed numerous tents in the Gaza Strip late last week. As various media outlets reported, citing local correspondents, a severe winter storm hit the area on Friday evening. The media office of the Islamist Hamas government announced that 70,000 tents had been flooded. The information cannot be independently verified.
Videos show search for missing people
Video footage verified by Reuters shows residents using hammers to break large sand boulders, while others use shovels to scoop away sand and use flashlights to search for people buried underneath. »What should we say about the situation in Gaza? Those who did not die from bombs and rockets are now dying under collapsing buildings or under masses of sand and rubble," a relative of the victims told Reuters.
According to an eyewitness, the collapse of the embankment sounded like an explosion. »We found that three tents were completely buried after the mountain fell on them. "People were lying under the rubble and couldn't be seen," he told Reuters.
The Israeli army has been active in the Gaza Strip for the third year and occupies 60 percent of the area. Hamas and terrorists from other extremist organizations abducted more than 250 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip during the massacre on October 7, 2023. The unprecedented attack with around 1,200 deaths in Israel triggered the Gaza War.
Open Questions
- How many people are currently buried under the rubble?
- Are there other tent camps at risk due to the threat of landslides?
