Woman, 3 children killed in Gaza after sand embankment collapses onto tents

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: Nov 09, 2026 10:32 AM EST | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Torrential rain in Gaza caused a sand embankment to collapse onto tents, killing a woman and three small children in an incident that highlighted the danger facing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians as the rainy winter season sets in.

Medics said heavy rain late on Sunday washed away a rocky sandbank abutting a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. A woman and two of her children, aged eight and six, were killed. A fourth child, aged four, was also killed, and six others were injured.

Video verified by Reuters showed residents using hammers to break large sandy rocks and others removing sand with shovels searching for people trapped underneath using flashlights.

"What can one say about the situation in Gaza? Whoever did not die from bombs and missiles is dying from buildings collapsing on them, from the collapse of sand and mountains on them," said Amal Al-Zein, 35, a relative of the victims.

Sohaib Abu Darbali, a witness, said the collapse of the embankment sounded like an explosion.

"We found that three tents were covered completely after the mountain collapsed on top of them. People were under the rubble and we couldn't see them," he told Reuters.

Displaced Palestinians attempt to clear a water puddle outside their flooded tents amid heavy rainfall in Gaza City's Al-Remal neighbourhood on Saturday. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images)

The vast majority of Gaza's population of two million lives in tent encampments or the ruins of bombed-out buildings, with reconstruction yet to begin following Israel's two-year military assault, launched after the 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

For many of them, this is the fourth winter during which they will need to cope with flood water overtaking their tents and soaking their belongings when it rains.

Local authorities said at least 70,000 tents had been flooded in the first hours after heavy rain began on Saturday.

The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said humanitarian partners had received appeals from more than 26,000 households reporting damage to shelters or belongings following weekend rainstorms.

'Only solution is reconstruction'

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire last year called for the eventual reconstruction of Gaza, but little progress has been made. Negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw its troops, which control about two-thirds of the territory and from which residents have been ordered to leave.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence service, said people put up their tents next to sandbanks believing they could protect them.

"Tents can't protect people, neither from rain nor the heat, the only solution is reconstruction," Basal told Reuters.

Israel says no reconstruction can happen before Hamas is disarmed.

Save the Children warned of another critical winter season, adding that the flooding and its devastating impact was "entirely foreseeable."

Palestinians gather on Monday at the site of a deadly collapse of a sandbank at a tent camp for displaced people in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)

"Over the weekend, while families slept, water flooded their tents and engulfed entire camps. Children shivered in the bitter cold without winter clothing, and families lost the few belongings they had left," said Ahmad Alhendawi, the group's regional director for the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa.

“This is not simply the result of bad weather."

The non-governmental organization says basic items continue to be restricted from entering the territory.

"Tents, shelter kits and fuel are waiting at Gaza’s borders while children sleep in floodwater, because the Israeli authorities are blocking their entry. This is a choice, and children are paying the price," Alhendawi said.

"More than a year into the so-called ceasefire, it has failed to protect Palestinian children."