Gaza building collapse kills at least 20 people as rescue teams search rubble by hand

Collapse in Tal al-Hawa

In the early hours of Wednesday at approximately 2:00 a.m. local time, the Saada residential building in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City collapsed onto neighbouring homes and displaced persons' tents. The multistory building, which contained four apartments on each level across six or seven storeys, had sustained structural damage during earlier Israeli strikes. At least 10 displaced families were sheltering inside the unstable complex when it gave way, having returned there due to a severe shortage of tents and alternative accommodation across the city.

Rising toll and manual rescue efforts

By Wednesday afternoon, civil defence and medical teams confirmed that the death toll reached at least 20 people, including six children, while between 14 and 25 injured people were transferred to medical facilities including Shifa Hospital. Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal stated that nearly 100 people were feared trapped beneath the concrete debris. Emergency workers, assisted by Egyptian relief personnel and the International Committee of the Red Cross, removed rubble using their bare hands and small tools due to the lack of heavy machinery. Gaza City Civil Defence director Raed al-Dahshan confirmed that search crews continued to detect signs of life beneath the ruins.

We are still hearing voices from under the rubble, so there is still hope to find people.

Equipment shortages and border restrictions

Palestinian officials and United Nations representatives attributed the absence of excavators and heavy rescue equipment to Israeli border restrictions on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government states that these import controls are designed to prevent dual-use machinery from reaching militant groups. The resulting equipment deficit forced rescuers to clear shattered masonry manually, complicating efforts to retrieve survivors and manage an estimated 61 million tons of wartime debris across the enclave. UN Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov called for immediate access to safer housing options for displaced civilians.

No one should have to risk their life simply to find a safe place to shelter.

Vulnerable structures across the territory

Local emergency services estimate that approximately 2,000 damaged buildings throughout the enclave remain occupied by Palestinian families with nowhere else to seek refuge from weather and exposure. In the Gaza City area alone, authorities have identified roughly 70 buildings at risk of structural failure. Alessandro Mrakic, head of the United Nations Development Programme office in Gaza, warned that approaching autumn and winter rains threaten to destabilize hundreds of additional compromised structures.

There are approximately 400 buildings at risk of collapse. And we know that these buildings will collapse, especially now with the upcoming winter.

Stalled reconstruction efforts

Diplomatic initiatives led by regional mediators and the Board of Peace following the October 2025 United States-brokered ceasefire agreement have not enabled large-scale entry of construction materials. Thousands of bodies from earlier phases of the war remain unrecovered under rubble across the territory. Meanwhile, Israeli military operations in the area continue, including a strike on Tuesday that killed a Civil Defence worker and a teenager, an incident the Israeli military stated targeted Hamas militants and remains under internal review.