Gaza authorities condemn global inaction following mudslide that kills five displaced residents

A sandbank collapse under heavy rain crushed a tent, killing four children and a woman.

Palestinian authorities have condemned global indifference and inaction after a landslide killed five displaced people sheltering in tents in the central Gaza Strip following heavy rains.

“This is a scene that should shame the conscience of humanity and reflects the extent of the complicity and abandonment to which our people are subjected,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement on Monday.

Four children and a woman were killed and two others remain missing after a sandbank collapsed onto their tent in Deir el‑Balah on Sunday. The disaster occurred after the first winter storm of the year brought heavy rains to the besieged territory on Friday, causing widespread flooding.

Floodwaters inundated displacement camps and weakened structures already damaged by Israeli airstrikes, compounding the vulnerability of the shelters.

Israeli military restrictions have limited the availability of specialist search‑and‑rescue equipment. Residents have been forced to dig with their bare hands in efforts to reach survivors.

Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el‑Balah, said the victims were living in flimsy tents on exposed ground with no protection from the heavy rain. “When the embankment collapsed, those people had no chance to escape or protect themselves, and this raises difficult conditions about what people on the ground are left to endure,” he added.

Approximately 70,000 tents were flooded during the weekend storm. Save the Children reports that more than half a million children are living in shelters classified as “critical or catastrophic”.

Save the Children noted that a ceasefire agreement reached over a year ago promised the entry of caravans as a more durable alternative to tents, but Israeli authorities have repeatedly blocked their delivery, leaving hundreds of thousands of children exposed to another harsh winter.

The Government Media Office held Israel, the United States and the international community “fully and directly responsible,” accusing them of an “absolute silence regarding the occupation’s crimes and their complicity in preventing the entry of shelter supplies, construction materials, caravans, fuel and spare parts needed to operate municipal and civil‑defence machinery.”

They further condemned “the complete absence of the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” arguing that their failure to act “raises serious questions about the very purpose of these bodies, which remain passive observers in the face of the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

More than 74,600 people have been killed since Israel’s military campaign began on October 7, 2023, in response to a Hamas attack. Since a “ceasefire” in October 2025, Israeli forces have killed over 1,600 Palestinians.

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