Gaza authorities slam global ‘inaction’ after mudslide kills five people

Palestinian authorities have criticised global “indifference and inaction” after a landslide killed five displaced people sheltering in tents in the central Gaza Strip following heavy rains. “This is a scene that should shame the conscience of humanity and reflects the extent of the complicity and abandonment to which our […] people are subjected,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement on Monday.

Four children and a woman were killed and two people remain missing after a sandbank collapsed onto their tent in Deir el-Balah on Sunday. The landslide happened after heavy rains brought by the first winter storm of the year hit the besieged territory on Friday, causing widespread flooding.

Restrictions imposed by the Israeli military mean specialist search and rescue equipment is in short supply, and Gaza residents were forced to dig using their bare hands to try and reach survivors. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the victims were living in flimsy tents, on exposed ground, with no protection from the heavy rain.