A six-storey building, already cracked and weakened by earlier Israeli strikes during Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on the tiny Palestinian enclave, crumbles onto nearby homes and tents in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa area, killing 21 civilians and trapping dozens more beneath the rubble.
The disaster lays bare a broader crisis engulfing Gaza, where the vast majority of buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes, construction materials remain critically scarce, and displaced families are left with no choice but to shelter in cracked, unstable structures the civil defence agency has flagged among nearly 2,000 buildings across the territory it considers at risk of imminent collapse.
A building collapses overnight
Gaza's civil defence agency said a six-storey building, with four apartments per floor, collapsed early Wednesday in the Tal al-Hawa area of Gaza City.
The structure fell onto nearby homes and tents, according to the agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas authority.
Death toll includes 12 children
Authorities in Gaza confirmed 21 people died in the collapse, among them 12 children and five women.
Rescue teams said they pulled the bodies from the rubble "after hours of arduous work," and transported 45 injured people to hospital.
The civil defence agency said the building had sustained damage from previous Israeli strikes and was sheltering more than 100 displaced people at the time it fell.
The agency’s spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said the structure was hit multiple times, in 2024 and again in March 2025, prompting warnings for residents not to return.
Families had ‘no other choice’ but to stay
Bassal added the displaced families are living in cracked, damaged buildings because they have no alternative.
"With neither tents nor homes available, they are living in cracked, damaged buildings despite the risk of collapse," he said.
Ahmed Al-Ajla, who lost his uncle and other relatives in the collapse, described such structures as "nothing but ticking time bombs."
Around 2,000 buildings are at risk of collapse
Gaza's civil defence agency has identified roughly 2,000 buildings across the Palestinian elclave that it considers at risk of collapse.
The UN said the vast majority of buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the war began, leaving construction materials in critically short supply.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, said he is "devastated" by the collapse.
"Today's tragedy underscored the grave risks faced by families living in these structures and the urgent need for safer alternatives. No one should have to risk their life simply to find a safe place to shelter," he said.
Israel launched its brutal war on 7 October 2023. The health ministry in Gaza, whose figures the UN considers reliable, said the genocidal war has since killed more than 73,700 people.
Israel has allowed limited aid into Gaza since a US-brokered ceasefire took hold in October 2025, but continues to carry out strikes and restricts entry of equipment it claims could have military use.
