Gaza Families Trapped as Buildings Near Collapse

The roof of Masada Abu Jarad’s apartment has partially collapsed, leaving broken concrete and twisted steel bars jutting from its edges.

Under the exposed section, her family has set up a tent for shelter.

Masada Abu Jarad, 60, is aware that the building is hazardous. Local emergency responders, including the Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defence, visited the family the previous week and urged them to evacuate. However, Israel’s refusal to permit reconstruction after nearly three years of war has left virtually no viable alternatives.

“We have no options,” Masada says. “I want to leave, but who will give me an alternative?”

She returned to Gaza City’s Palestine Square area after being displaced earlier in the war, having originally hailed from Beit Lahiya in the far north of the Strip. Even now, she cannot return to her hometown.

After repeated displacements, the prospect of moving again without a safe destination has become exhausting, and even if relocation were possible, the financial burden is insurmountable.

“Even if there is a better place, tell me how I can afford to rent it,” Masada said.

Her experience mirrors a broader housing crisis afflicting Palestinians who have survived Israel’s war, which has claimed over 73,000 lives.

A joint UN‑World Bank‑EU assessment reported that 371,888 housing units—76.6 % of Gaza’s housing stock—had been destroyed or damaged as of October 2025, with reconstruction costing over $71 billion over the next decade.

The deadly risks of Gaza’s damaged housing were starkly illustrated on 16 September, when a six‑storey residential building collapsed in Gaza City, killing 21 people, 12 of them children, according to UN and local civil‑defence reports.

I Stay Awake so They Can Sleep

Abdullah Abu Hajar, 40, lives with his wife and five children in the al‑Najma building, a six‑storey structure in Gaza’s southern Remal neighbourhood that is severely damaged and unstable. Approximately 17 families—around 50 to 60 people—share the building, he said.

On the exterior walls, municipal notices warn residents and passers‑by that the building is unsafe and at risk of collapse.

At night, while his family attempts to sleep, Abdullah remains vigilant, listening for any unsettling noises. Every creak, shifting concrete, or stone movement sends him into a state of alert. “I stay awake all night, keeping watch,” he said. “I can’t close my eyes. I keep just listening to sounds around me.”

Abdullah feels deeply concerned for his children, even though they have adapted to the danger, a fear he has not fully embraced. “I’m already on edge,” he said. “But I don’t know where I can go.” He was displaced from Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza after it was attacked by Israel and moved repeatedly during the war, eventually finding the al‑Najma building.

His extended family faces the same uncertainty. One relative has been moving between southern and northern Gaza, searching for a place to pitch a tent. “I told him to come and stay with us,” Abdullah said. “But he is hesitant because of the condition of this building. At the same time, he has nowhere else to go.”

A Room Amid the Rubble

Islam Hassanein, 36, a mother of five, has spent nearly a year living in a single third‑floor room of a damaged building after clearing it of debris. “We cleaned it and stayed in it,” she said.

The building is visibly leaning and damaged; the plumbing does not function, forcing the family to use an external bathroom. Little remains of a conventional home.

Leaving has proved no easier than staying. “We keep looking, but we can’t find anywhere,” she says. “They might even force us out of here. What are we supposed to do?”

Islam says she would leave immediately if offered a safe place. “If they find us a good place and provide us with a tent, we will leave from the morning,” she says. “But where is this place? And where is the tent?”

Every day, she hears the building cracking. “People who live here tell us, ‘It’s cracking.’ Then a column fell, and they took us out of the building temporarily.”

Last winter was terrifying, she recalls. “We were constantly afraid that the building would collapse. I spent most days in my family’s tent because this building was full of openings and would flood whenever it rained.” “Now, I am very afraid of this winter, and I don’t know what we are going to do.”

The UN says thousands of people are sheltering in damaged buildings considered unsafe because better housing options are unavailable.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of tents, tarpaulins and other essential shelter materials are making the situation more difficult, leaving Gaza in a state of limbo, unable to move on from the war, particularly as Israel can choose to escalate the conflict at any time.

UNICEF estimates that nearly 84 % of Gaza’s population—more than 1.76 million people—are living in overcrowded displacement sites or damaged and inadequate shelters, with little protection from cold, heavy rain and flooding.

Islam says the war has forced families to take risks they once would have considered unthinkable. “They are all afraid,” she said. “But what can we do? If there is an alternative, I will leave. We leave it to God.”

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