DaysofPal – A Palestinian man was killed and several others injured on Tuesday when a residential building previously damaged by Israeli bombardment collapsed west of Gaza City, amid worsening weather conditions.
The Civil Defence confirmed that rescue teams recovered the body of the victim and pulled several injured people from beneath the rubble of the al-Hassari family home, located near the al-Shifa Medical Complex.
The house, situated close to the Hamid junction on al-Shifa Street, had sustained serious structural damage during earlier Israeli airstrikes.
According to local sources, the weakened building collapsed on its residents as heavy rain and strong winds intensified, highlighting the ongoing dangers posed by war-damaged infrastructure across the Gaza Strip.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene, carrying out search-and-rescue operations and providing first aid to the injured, amid fears that additional victims could still be trapped under the debris.
The incident occurred as torrential rain and strong winds swept across Gaza on Tuesday morning, causing thousands of displacement tents to be blown away or flooded in various areas of the enclave. Parts of al-Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in Gaza, were also inundated, further straining an already crippled health system.
Although the current low-pressure weather system is considered less severe than previous ones, it was sufficient to flood roads that had already been destroyed by Israel’s war on Gaza.
The storm also exposed the extreme fragility of displacement camps, where makeshift tents can no longer withstand even moderate weather changes due to the absence of basic humanitarian shelter conditions.
The impact of the rain extended beyond displacement camps to vital facilities. Rainwater leaked into the emergency and reception departments of al-Shifa Medical Complex, which had suffered extensive destruction during Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
In Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinians sought refuge from the rain beneath partially destroyed buildings, despite repeated warnings from Civil Defence officials about the high risk of further collapses.
Nizar Ayyash, mayor of Deir al-Balah, warned that homes left structurally unsound by Israeli attacks pose a serious threat to residents living nearby, particularly during the winter season. He stressed that Gaza urgently needs alternatives to tents to protect its population from harsh weather conditions.
Ayyash called for the immediate entry of mobile housing units into the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that such solutions are essential to confront current and future weather systems and to safeguard civilians whose homes have been destroyed.
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