A building falls on families sheltering inside
At least 20 people died, among them children, and dozens remain missing after a six-storey apartment block damaged by war collapsed in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City. The building, which had four apartments on each floor, came down during the night onto nearby homes and tents, according to the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority. Videos circulating on social media showed search work continuing in the rubble. Neighbours said roughly ten families had been living in the apartments even though they had been warned the structure was not safe.[S1][S3][S4]
Accounts of the toll vary slightly between reports. The civil defence agency put the figure at 20 recovered bodies, including five babies, while the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza and other officials cited at least 21 dead, among them eight children. The Palestinian Authority said about 60 people were still unaccounted for beneath the debris, while the head of the UN Development Programme office in Gaza, Alessandro Mrakic, told journalists at the scene that between 70 and 100 people were believed trapped. Rescue teams said they had lost hope of finding more survivors, having heard no voices for hours.[S1][S2][S3][S4]
Hands, borrowed diggers and a shortage of equipment
During the first hours of the rescue, members of the civil defence agency had to claw through the debris with their hands. UN agencies and an Egyptian team later joined the effort, and excavators flying Egyptian flags worked alongside rows of tents for displaced people while rescuers and volunteers carried out bodies wrapped in white plastic bags. The civil defence agency said its operations depended on limited crews and basic tools because Israeli restrictions block heavy machinery and necessary equipment from entering the Gaza Strip. Israel says its restrictions are meant to keep equipment out of the hands of Palestinian armed groups.[S1][S3][S4]
The UN humanitarian coordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, called on Israeli authorities to approve the delivery of heavy machinery for the rescue, along with tents, tarpaulins and other non-food items for displaced people ahead of winter rains. The Palestinian Authority, which governs in the occupied West Bank, demanded immediate and unimpeded access for Palestinian and international rescue teams to the enclave, whose crossings Israel controls, saying every minute of delay costs more lives. A civil defence spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, said the building had suffered structural damage in earlier Israeli strikes and had been hit several times in 2024 and March 2025, prompting warnings to Gazans not to return.[S1][S3][S4]
Hundreds more buildings at risk as winter nears
Mrakic warned that roughly another 400 buildings damaged by the war across Gaza faced imminent risk of collapse, especially as winter arrives, and said the teams on the ground lacked fuel for engines and spare parts to keep working. Basal said about 2,000 buildings in populated areas of the Strip were in the same condition and were full of residents, and urged the world to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Rescue sources said residents had been warned the building could fall because of widespread destruction from Israeli bombs, structural damage from detonations in nearby buildings inside the area Israel controls, shifting temperatures, and the fact that it was not built to house a hundred people.[S1][S2][S4]
According to the UN, an estimated 80% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged during the war between Israel and Hamas. More than 1.9 million people, about 90% of the territory's population, have been displaced, many of them repeatedly, and 1.2 million are living in tents or improvised shelters. The UN has warned that the humanitarian situation remains critical despite the ceasefire agreed last October, because Israeli air strikes and other operations continue to hit populated areas, causing casualties, material damage and fresh displacement. On Tuesday, health officials said Israeli air strikes killed at least five Palestinians, including two children and a Hamas commander.[S1]
A war that began on 7 October 2023
The Gaza war began with the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Since then, more than 73,790 people have died in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. The Israeli military announced the death of a Hamas commander in southern Gaza and of another fighter in the north, saying a child also died in each case. The British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said a patient died in an Israeli drone strike on a health centre it supports in Jabalia, in northern Gaza; an army spokesperson told the BBC they had no knowledge of such an incident.[S1][S4]
