GAZA/THE HAGUE: Authorities in Gaza warned on Monday that more war-damaged buildings may collapse because of heavy rain in the devastated Palestinian enclave and said the weather was making it hard to recover bodies still under the rubble.

Two buildings collapsed in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 12 people according to local health authorities, amid a storm that has also washed away and flooded tents, and led to deaths from exposure.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of intense bombardment and military operations, but humanitarian agencies say there is still very little aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless.

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Gaza Civil Defence spokes­man Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents.“If people are not protected today, we will witness more victims, more killing of people, children, women, entire families inside these buildings,” he said.

Home collapsed, killing children

Mohammad Nassar and his family were living in a six-storey building that was badly damaged by Israeli strikes earlier in the war, and then collapsed on Friday.

His family had struggled to find alternative accommodation and had been flooded out while living in a tent during a previous bout of bad weather. Nassar went out to buy some necessities on Friday and returned to a scene of carnage with rescue workers struggling to pull bodies from the rubble. “I saw my son’s hand sticking out from under the ground. It was the scene that affected me the most. My son is under the ground, and we are unable to get him out,” Nassar said. His son, 15, died, as did a daughter, aged 18.

UN makes urgent call

Later on Monday, the head of the US Palestinian refugee agency said more aid must be allowed into Gaza without delays to prevent putting more displaced families at serious risk.

“With heavy rain and cold brought in by Storm Byron, people in the Gaza Strip are freezing to death,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on X.

“The waterlogged ruins where they are sheltering are collapsing, causing even more exposure to cold,” he added.

Lazzarini said they have supplies that have been waiting for months to enter Gaza, and which he said would cover the needs of hundreds of thousands of the population of over two million.

UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting.

Gaza authorities are meanwhile still digging to recover around 9,000 bodies they estimate remain buried in rubble from Israeli bombing during the war, but they lack the machinery needed to expedite the work, spokesman Ismail al-Thawabta said.

Legal challenges

Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court’s probe into its conduct of the Gaza war.

On appeal, judges refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution’s investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following the deadly attack on Israel by militant Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The ruling means the investigation continues, and the arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant remain in place.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025