Gaza rescuers say storm-linked collapse killed five

Gaza's civil defence said Sunday that five people were killed when a sandy embankment collapsed onto tents housing displaced people south of Deir al-Balah during heavy rains.

Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said the dead were three children and two women. He said rescue teams were continuing to search for missing people.

Bassal said the collapse happened at a shelter centre in the central Gaza Strip. The rescue agency warned displaced people not to set up tents or remain near sand masses and elevated soil mounds during rainfall, saying they posed a threat to life.

Heavy rain that began Saturday flooded tents across war-devastated Gaza. The Hamas-run government media office said about 70,000 tents sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people were flooded on the first day of rains, leaving many without shelter.

The office also said dozens of cracked walls and roofs collapsed in different areas of Gaza, causing injuries, some critical. Hundreds of displaced families were seen fleeing camps in parts of Gaza City and in central and northern Gaza after rainwater inundated the sites.

Gaza's civil defence had earlier said it received more than 1,500 calls overnight from residents seeking urgent help after their tents were flooded and said it lacked equipment and capabilities.

A fragile ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on October 10, 2025, after two years of war that began with the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The war destroyed large parts of the territory, leaving most of the population displaced and often living in tents or other makeshift shelters.

Despite the ceasefire agreement reached with Egyptian, Qatari and US mediation, the Israeli army continues airstrikes and ground operations against what it says are Hamas operatives on an almost daily basis.