Gaza, December 31, 2025 (WAFA) – Sami Abu Salem
After the Israeli occupation forces destroyed about 70% of the residential sector in the Gaza Strip, thousands of citizens are forced to return to live in damaged and dilapidated homes, in the absence of alternatives, despite the recording of deaths as a result of the collapse of homes, and continuous warnings from official bodies and specialists .
In the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, Jamal Eid (72 years old) returned to his damaged home after more than one forced displacement during the past two years, and decided to take it as a residence despite his full knowledge of its danger .
Eid describes his home as full of hazards; he found hanging and arched concrete columns, holes in the ceilings, cracked and dilapidated walls, in addition to parts on the verge of collapse on the first and second floors .
Despite this, he decided to stay there with the rest of his children and grandchildren, after seven members of his family were killed in two separate attacks on his home and the family home on December 28, 2023 and August 14, 2024 .
Eid says: “After the harsh experience of displacement, and what I witnessed of humiliation and cruelty in tent life, I decided not to return to it,” explaining that he does not have the ability to rent shelter, as he is a retiree with no income, and he has spent his savings during the two years of war .
He added that he is aware of the risk of the house collapsing, but he tried to take as many precautions as possible, noting that he consulted engineers who warned him against living in it, which prompted him to use about 40 iron supports to support the columns and ceilings, measures that reduce the risk but do not prevent it completely .
For his part, structural engineer Kamal Matar said that the collapse of buildings is due to several reasons, most notably the destruction of main columns in the building, which leads to a disruption in the distribution of loads, and thus the collapse becomes an expected event .
Matar told WAFA that the uneven weight distribution makes the building vulnerable to collapse for any reason, whether due to vibrations from nearby shelling, changes in soil properties with increased humidity in winter, or even strong winds. He described these houses as “resembling mass graves,” and stressed the importance of not moving into them without consulting specialists .
During the two storms that hit the Gaza Strip this winter, 19 citizens, including women and children, were killed as a result of their homes collapsing.
During a conversation between citizen Jamal Eid and a Wafa correspondent, an explosion resulting from an air raid east of the Maghazi camp shook the house, prompting him to comment: “This is one of the dangers we live with.”
The house is currently inhabited by ten people, including Eid and his wife on the first floor, while the rest of the family lives on the third and fourth floors. The second floor remains empty and uninhabitable. Eid covers the first floor with wooden planks and plastic sheeting, which leak rainwater, and the wind exacerbates the cold, with temperatures reaching as low as 10 degrees Celsius .
In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, an inhabited house belonging to the Labad family collapsed, resulting in the death of five citizens, including two women and a child, on December 20 .
Mohammed Labad, a relative of the family, said that about 20 people were inside the house at the moment it collapsed. Five of them were killed, while the others managed to survive or were rescued from under the rubble .
He pointed out that the house had previously suffered extensive damage, suggesting that this was likely the result of missile strikes or the detonation of booby-trapped armored vehicles used by the occupation during its recent attack on Gaza .
Ramez Al-Dalu, a neighbor and eyewitness, said he heard a loud explosion, followed by stones scattering and the streets filling with dust, only to later discover that the four-story house of the Labad family had collapsed on top of its residents .
He added that the house had been previously damaged, and its residents had returned to it because there was no alternative, before it collapsed on them, stressing that volunteers and neighbors were able to rescue a number of those trapped, while five citizens were martyred .
Al-Dalu pointed out that the area was subjected to extensive bombing operations using booby-trapped armored vehicles during the recent Israeli attack, which led to the destruction of a large number of homes, explaining that his family, like others, is also forced to live in a damaged house .
Sources in the rescue teams reported that 18 residential buildings collapsed completely, while 110 buildings suffered partial collapses since the beginning of the weather depressions this month .
In a related development, Japan and several European countries announced on Tuesday that approximately 1.3 million people in Gaza are in dire need of urgent shelter. A joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom stated that civilians in Gaza are facing harsh humanitarian conditions amid heavy rains and plummeting temperatures, with a continued and critical need for shelter support .
The occupation forces launched a wide-scale aggression on Gaza City and its north at the beginning of September last year, during which they used armored vehicles with explosives on a large scale, according to eyewitnesses. This was part of the ongoing aggression since October 7, 2023, which resulted in the martyrdom of more than 70,000 citizens, and the destruction of infrastructure and more than half a million housing units, which is equivalent to 70% of the housing, according to statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Housing .
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E.R
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