Inside the Gaza Building That Became a Shelter Before Collapsing Overnight

A war-damaged apartment building in Gaza City collapsed overnight on September 16, killing at least 20 Palestinians and leaving rescuers searching for survivors beneath the wreckage. The United Nations said an estimated 100 people, including about 50 children, were living in the building when it collapsed. Gaza Civil Defence reported that at least 10 families had been sheltering there.

The building had previously sustained damage during the war but remained a place where displaced families could live when safer alternatives were scarce. The collapse illustrates a broader problem across Gaza: damaged buildings are increasingly being used as shelters because many families have nowhere else to go. The UN says hundreds of damaged structures are considered unsafe, while Gaza Civil Defence has estimated that roughly 2,000 damaged buildings remain occupied.

A damaged building became a home again

The apartment block in Gaza City had already been damaged before it collapsed.

According to reporting from the scene and Palestinian Civil Defence officials, the structure had been struck during the war and was known to have structural damage. Yet families subsequently occupied the building, turning apartments that had survived the earlier attacks into makeshift homes. Reuters reported that the building was one of roughly 2,000 damaged buildings now housing displaced people.

The exact sequence of structural damage and the technical mechanism that caused the final collapse require engineering assessment. What is established is that the building had previously been damaged and was occupied when it failed.

That distinction matters. A building remaining upright after an attack does not establish that it remains structurally safe.

About 100 people were living there

The scale of the tragedy became clearer as rescue operations continued.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov said approximately 100 people, including 50 children, were living in the building when it collapsed. Civil Defence officials said more than 10 families had been sheltering inside.

Not everyone believed to have been living there was necessarily trapped when the building came down. Some residents could have been outside, rescued or otherwise accounted for. For that reason, the estimate of around 100 residents should not be treated as a confirmed number of people beneath the rubble.

The rescue operation itself has been changing the casualty figures. Reuters initially reported 12 deaths before updating the toll to at least 20. Other reports subsequently put the death toll at 21.

Because recovery work was still underway, the figures were provisional at the time of reporting.

Rescuers were still looking for survivors

The most urgent part of the story was happening beneath the collapsed floors.

Gaza Civil Defence teams searched the wreckage while residents and humanitarian personnel assisted. Officials said rescuers could still hear voices beneath the debris, creating the possibility that people remained alive inside the collapsed structure.

The United Nations said the response had been mobilized quickly and that Egypt had provided heavy machinery. UN agencies were also working to provide health and shelter assistance to survivors.

But the operation was constrained by the shortage of appropriate equipment. Reuters reported that rescuers lacked sufficient heavy machinery, with some work being carried out using basic tools and manual excavation.

For people trapped inside a collapsed multi-storey building, that shortage can have immediate consequences. Large concrete slabs and twisted structural materials cannot be safely moved quickly by hand, while heavy equipment must itself be operated carefully around unstable sections of the structure.

Why families remained inside an unsafe building

The central question is not simply why residents entered a damaged building. It is why they had so few safer alternatives.

The UN said people across Gaza are living in damaged buildings that have been assessed as unsafe because better options are unavailable. Its statement following the collapse called for safer accommodation for families and warned of the dangers posed by continued occupation of damaged structures.

This creates a particularly difficult form of displacement.

A partially damaged apartment can offer walls, a roof and some protection from weather. A tent or overcrowded displacement site may provide considerably less protection. But a building whose structural integrity has been compromised can carry a different and potentially fatal risk.

The latest collapse shows how the shortage of safe shelter can turn structural damage from a property problem into a direct threat to human life.

The building was part of a much larger crisis

The apartment collapse was not an isolated structural event.

Gaza’s built environment has suffered extensive damage throughout the war. A UNOSAT assessment cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that 201,290 structures had sustained damage as of June 16, 2026, representing about 82% of the structures assessed.

That assessment does not mean that all damaged structures are equally dangerous. Damage categories range from possible or moderate damage to severe damage and complete destruction.

The distinction is important because satellite imagery can establish the extent of visible damage, but determining whether a particular building is safe for habitation requires detailed structural assessment.

Around 400 buildings are reportedly at risk

The wider warning is particularly significant because UNDP has identified approximately 400 buildings as being at risk of collapse, according to its Gaza chief Alessandro Mrakic.

That figure should not be confused with the approximately 2,000 damaged buildings reportedly still occupied.

The numbers describe different dimensions of the problem:

• About 2,000: damaged buildings reportedly still housing families.
• About 400: buildings described by the UNDP official as being at risk of collapse.

There is therefore no basis for assuming that all 2,000 occupied damaged buildings are immediately at risk of collapse. But the overlap between unsafe structures and displaced families is precisely what makes the situation so dangerous.

Why previous damage can become a later collapse

A building can sustain serious structural damage without immediately falling.

An impact can weaken columns, beams, load-bearing walls, floor systems or the connections between them. The remaining structure may continue standing while having substantially less capacity to withstand additional stresses.

Further deterioration can make the situation worse. Water penetration, corrosion, damaged reinforcement and additional structural loading can all become relevant depending on the nature of the original damage.

That is why structural engineers generally cannot determine safety simply by looking at whether a building is still standing.

In Gaza, the challenge is multiplied by the sheer number of damaged structures and the fact that some of them are being used as homes.

The coming rains add another concern

The UN is also preparing for the rainy season.

Alakbarov said humanitarian organizations were helping people who choose to leave damaged buildings and areas vulnerable to flooding move toward safer locations. The UN has also called for tents, tarpaulins, fuel and other supplies to reach vulnerable communities.

The significance is straightforward: moving families out of dangerous buildings requires somewhere else for them to live.

Without adequate alternative shelter, an evacuation warning can leave displaced people facing a choice between an unsafe building and an exposed temporary shelter.

The rescue problem is also a reconstruction problem

The collapse highlights another obstacle: the difference between surviving the destruction of a building and recovering the land on which it stood.

UNDP has estimated that Gaza contains roughly 61 million tonnes of war debris. Removing that material requires machinery, fuel, safe access and systems for sorting and disposing of rubble.

Rescue and reconstruction are therefore connected but distinct operations.

Search-and-rescue teams need immediate access to collapsed structures. Engineers need to determine whether surviving buildings can be stabilized. Humanitarian agencies need safe places for displaced families. Eventually, authorities must determine which structures can be repaired and which must be removed before reconstruction can begin.

What remains unknown

The final number of people killed or missing in the September 16 collapse was still being established as rescue teams worked through the rubble.

The precise cause of the building’s final failure also requires more technical evidence than is currently publicly available. Its previous war damage is documented, but determining exactly which structural elements failed first and why requires an engineering investigation.

What is already clear is the broader risk.

The UN says families are living in damaged structures because safer alternatives are insufficient. Civil Defence continues to face major equipment constraints. And humanitarian officials are warning that hundreds of damaged buildings could pose serious structural dangers.

The apartment that collapsed overnight was therefore more than a single damaged building. It was a shelter for displaced families, a product of Gaza’s housing crisis and, ultimately, a reminder that a structure can remain standing long enough to become someone’s home even after it has ceased to be reliably safe.

For the people still living in damaged buildings across Gaza, the unanswered question is not simply which structures might collapse next. It is whether safe alternatives will become available before another damaged building becomes a shelter—and another shelter becomes a disaster.