Arabic version: عائلات في غزة تحتمي في مبانٍ مهددة بالانهيار
According to Al Jazeera, families in Gaza City are remaining in damaged, unstable buildings because they cannot find or afford safer shelter. Masada Abu Jarad, 60, lives beneath a partially collapsed roof in the Palestine Square area, where her family has pitched a tent inside the exposed room. The Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defence warned the family to leave, but she said they have no alternative.
Abu Jarad’s family returned to northern Gaza after displacement earlier in the war, although they are originally from Beit Lahiya and cannot return there. Across Gaza, housing damage has left survivors facing dangerous choices. A joint assessment by the United Nations, World Bank and European Union found that 371,888 housing units, or 76.6 percent of the housing stock, had been destroyed or damaged as of October 2025. It estimated that rebuilding Gaza would require more than $71bn over the next decade.
The risks were highlighted on September 16, when a six-storey war-damaged residential building in Gaza City collapsed, killing 21 people, including 12 children, according to the UN and Gaza Civil Defence. Abdullah Abu Hajar, 40, lives with his wife and five children in the severely damaged six-storey al-Najma building in the southern Remal neighbourhood. He said about 17 families, or roughly 50 to 60 people, are living there despite notices warning that the structure could collapse.
Islam Hassanein, 36, a mother of five, lives in one room on the third floor of the same damaged building after her family cleared rubble from it. She said residents hear cracking and that a column had fallen, prompting a temporary evacuation. The UN says thousands are sheltering in unsafe damaged buildings because better housing is unavailable. UNICEF estimates that nearly 84 percent of Gaza’s population, more than 1.76 million people, are living in overcrowded displacement sites or damaged and inadequate shelters, with limited protection from cold, heavy rain and flooding.
