Gaza authorities slam global ‘inaction’ after mudslide kills five people

What the report says

Palestinian authorities in Gaza have condemned what they described as international “indifference and inaction” after a landslide killed five displaced people in the central Gaza Strip. According to Al Jazeera, the disaster struck in Deir el-Balah on Sunday when heavy rain caused a sandbank to collapse onto a tent sheltering civilians.

The reported victims were four children and a woman. Two other people were still missing after the collapse, and residents were said to have been digging through mud and debris by hand because specialist search-and-rescue equipment is scarce in Gaza. Al Jazeera reported that the rainstorm was the first winter storm of the season and had already caused widespread flooding across displacement camps.

The Gaza Government Media Office blamed Israel, the United States and the wider international community, arguing that restrictions and the lack of shelter materials had left displaced families exposed. The report said floodwaters damaged tents and weakened buildings already hit by earlier Israeli airstrikes. Save the Children also warned in the article that many children remain in severe shelter conditions, with tents still being used instead of more durable housing.

The incident underscores how weather-related risks are becoming more dangerous in Gaza amid displacement, damaged infrastructure and limited access to rescue resources. Al Jazeera’s reporting places the deaths within the broader humanitarian crisis linked to the war that began after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and the continued devastation that followed.