Gaza families shelter in collapsing buildings with nowhere else to go

In Gaza City's Palestine Square, Masada Abu Jarad lives beneath a roof that is no longer a roof. Broken concrete and twisted steel bars mark where her apartment's ceiling gave way, and her family has pitched a tent in the open space to catch what shelter they can. The 60-year-old knows the building is failing. When the Palestinian Red Crescent and Civil Defence visited last week, they told her to leave. But leaving requires somewhere to go, and in Gaza after three years of war, that somewhere does not exist for her.

"We have no options," she said. "I want to leave, but who will give me an alternative?" She has lived in this damaged structure for a year, after returning to northern Gaza from earlier displacement. Her family originally came from Beit Lahiya, far to the north, but Israel's destruction of that area forced them out early in the war and they have not been able to return. Each displacement has worn away at the possibility of return, and the cost of moving again—if anywhere safe were available—has become impossible to bear. "Even if there is a better place, tell me how I can afford to rent it," she said.

Masada's situation is not singular. A joint assessment by the United Nations, World Bank, and European Union found that as of October 2025, 371,888 housing units had been destroyed or damaged—76.6 percent of Gaza's entire housing stock. Rebuilding will require more than $71 billion over the next decade. The war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, and the destruction has left families with a choice between two forms of danger: stay in structures that may collapse, or leave and have nowhere to go.

On September 16, that choice became fatal. A six-storey residential building in Gaza City collapsed without warning, killing 21 people, including 12 children. The collapse sent a shock through the families still living in damaged structures across the Strip. Abdullah Abu Hajar, 40, lives with his wife and five children in the al-Najma building in Gaza City's Remal neighbourhood. The six-storey structure is severely damaged and unstable. About 17 families—roughly 50 to 60 people—live there. Municipal notices on the outside walls warn that the building is unsafe and at risk of collapse. At night, while his family tries to sleep, Abdullah stays awake and listens. Every sound—concrete shifting, stones moving, unexplained creaking—puts him on alert. "I stay awake all night, keeping watch," he said. "I can't close my eyes. I keep just listening to sounds around me." Since the September 16 collapse, he has barely slept. He and his family were displaced from Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza and moved repeatedly during the war before finding the al-Najma building. His extended family faces the same trap: one relative has been moving between southern and northern Gaza looking for a place to pitch a tent, hesitant to stay with Abdullah because of the building's condition, yet with nowhere else to go.

Islam Hassanein, 36, a mother of five, has spent nearly a year in a single room on the third floor of a damaged building. She found the room filled with rubble and debris, cleaned it, and moved in. The building leans visibly. The plumbing does not work. There is little that resembles a home. But leaving has proved no easier than staying. "We keep looking, but we can't find anywhere," she said. "They might even force us out of here. What are we supposed to do?" She would leave immediately if offered a safe place. "If they find us a good place and provide us with a tent, we will leave from the morning," she said. "But where is this place? And where is the tent?" Every day she hears the building cracking. A column has already fallen. Residents were evacuated temporarily, then returned because there was nowhere else for them to be.

Winter is coming, and the threat is becoming more acute. Water enters through exposed roofs and walls. Heavy rain will place additional pressure on already weakened structures. "Last winter was terrifying," Islam said. "We were constantly afraid that the building would collapse. I spent most days in my family's tent because this building was full of openings and would flood whenever it rained." She is afraid of the winter ahead. "I don't know what we are going to do," she said.

The United Nations reports that thousands of people are sheltering in buildings deemed unsafe because better housing options do not exist. Israeli restrictions on the entry of tents, tarpaulins, and other essential shelter materials are preventing reconstruction and leaving Gaza in a state of suspension—unable to move forward from the war, unable to rebuild, unable to leave. 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 little protection from cold, heavy rain, and flooding. Islam worries about her five children but sees few choices. "They are all afraid," she said. "But what can we do? If there is an alternative, I will leave. We leave it to God."