Sand cliff collapses onto tents in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, killing five people, including three children
A steep sand cliff collapsed onto tents sheltering displaced families at the Ard El-Rebat camp in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Sunday evening, killing five people — two women and three children — the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, and Gaza's Civil Defence confirmed the toll. Rescue teams searched for missing people with basic tools during a power outage. The collapse came a day after the season's first winter storm flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza. Reports differ on how many people were injured.
Checking in progress
This story is still being checked. Claims below are published as claims — never dressed as facts — and each one moves only when the evidence earns it.
- Collecting reportsDone
- Grouping the versionsDone
- 3Checking claims2 of 3 claims checked
- 4Human gateStill to come
2 of 3 claims checked so far · step 3 of 4: Checking claims
Key points
- A sand cliff fell onto tents at the Ard El-Rebat camp in Deir al-Balah on Sunday evening, killing five people — two women and three children.
- Rescue teams searched for missing people with basic tools, in a power outage.
- The injured count is not settled: reports give five or six.
- The collapse came a day after the first winter storm flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza.
Watch: the moment itself
Direct video sits at the top of Vozia's evidence ladder — the moment itself, from its owner. Embedded from its home platform; we never download or re-host it.
Video: Al Jazeera English · Watch on YouTube
What happened
The camp sits in a territory where most people now live in tents or makeshift shelters after two years of war destroyed much of Gaza's housing. On Saturday the season's first winter storm flooded displacement camps across the Strip, leaving families bailing water from their tents; a rain-weakened bank of sand above a camp is part of that same picture of exposure.
Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, hosts large numbers of displaced families. Rescue work there is done with little equipment, and on Sunday night it was done without power.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The toll and its breakdown are WAFA's report, carried by Arab News, and Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal's account — five dead, three children and two women — reported separately; the two agree.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The search with basic tools and the power outage are Anadolu's report; Civil Defence spokesman Bassal said rescue workers continue to search for missing people.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The five-injured figure is WAFA's via Arab News; a Spanish report of the Palestinian newspaper Filastin's account gives six injured. One chain also gave a different breakdown of the dead (a woman and four children), which the WAFA and Civil Defence accounts do not support.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- Five people were killed — two women and three children — when the cliff fell on the Ard El-Rebat camp's tents, on WAFA's and the Civil Defence's accounts.
- Rescue teams were still searching for missing people on Sunday night.
What we don't know yet
- The settled number of injured — reports give five or six.
- Whether anyone remains missing under the sand.
- What exactly caused the cliff to give way — heavy rain in the days before is reported, but no official finding has been published.
Why it matters
Five more deaths, three of them children, in a place families were sent to for safety — and deaths not from bombing but from the ground itself giving way above a tent. It underlines how unsafe the shelter most Gazans now live in has become as winter arrives.
Background
The first winter storm of the season floods displacement camps across Gaza; tens of thousands of tents are inundated.
A sand cliff collapses onto tents at the Ard El-Rebat camp in Deir al-Balah, killing five people.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
- Latest
Published in Checking state — rescue work was still under way on Sunday night, and the injured count is not yet settled.