‘Our neighbours are gone’: Gaza survivors recount horrors of deadly floods

A deadly sandbank collapse buried displaced families alive in Deir el-Balah, as survivors describe desperate rescue attempts. Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – Gaza is dealing with the cleanup of catastrophic flooding after storms submerged displacement camps and war-destroyed cities. Heavy rain has directly affected 106,000 people in Gaza, according to UNICEF, with thousands of tents for displaced Palestinians submerged under water and latrines overflowing into camps.

The floods also brought death: a sandbank under pressure from heavy rain collapsed at the Ard al-Ribat displacement camp in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on Sunday evening, killing three children and a woman. Without excavation equipment, residents had to dig through the sand with their bare hands to reach people trapped under debris. When darkness came, they used flashlights on their mobile phones to search for survivors.

Zahira al-Sahar, 58, was preparing to sleep in her tent in the camp on Sunday when she and her 28-year-old daughter were almost entombed in the collapse.