Gaza siblings pulled from rubble left reeling after mother’s death

Gaza siblings pulled from rubble left reeling after mother’s death

Submitted by Maha Hussaini on Tue, 09/22/2026 - 09:36 Two children were pulled alive hours after an Israeli-struck building collapsed. Now they wake at night, reliving the moment falling concrete tore their family apart Ferial Azzam (L) and Abdulrahman Azzam (R) are struggling to cope after losing their mother in a building collapse in Gaza on 16 September 2026 (Hani Abu Rezeq/MEE) Off

A week after being pulled from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Gaza, seven-year-old Abdulrahman Azzam remains deeply traumatised.

The Palestinian boy reaches for his pregnant mother’s belly to protect her, only to remember that she is no longer there.

Every day, his father says, Abdulrahman relives the moment the ceiling came crashing down on him, his mother and siblings shortly before dawn.

Then comes the reality: only he and his nine-year-old sister, Ferial, were pulled alive from the rubble after being trapped for hours.

His mother, Islam Azzam, who was seven months pregnant, and his three-year-old brother, Rizq, were killed in the collapse.

“On the night before the building collapsed, my wife asked me if she could sleep at the apartment where her family was displaced because we were expecting rain,” Iyad Azzam, Abdulrahman’s father, told Middle East Eye.

The family had been living in a tent in Gaza City after their home was destroyed in Israeli strikes.

“She was seven months pregnant, and her birthday was the next day,” Azzam said.

“She told me, ‘Before it rains and we go through all the flooding again, I want to stay there [with my family] until the rain comes and passes.’”

The building had already been damaged by Israeli strikes in 2023 and was at risk of collapse; Islam's family's apartment was on the fourth floor.

In the dead of the night, it gave way, killing 21 people, including 12 children. Another 45 people were pulled from the rubble with injuries.

‘I thought it had been bombed’

Originally from the Shuja'iyya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, Azzam’s family had been displaced multiple times since the beginning of the Israeli genocide in October 2023.

Following the ceasefire announced in October 2025, they found an empty spot near the rubble of the Legislative Council building and set up their tent.

But whenever it rains, the tent turns into a “nightmare”.

“Our tent is set up on tiled ground. Whenever it rains, water pools underneath us. We can’t stay in the tent because we end up flooded, and all our belongings and bedding get soaked,” Azzam explained. 

“I encouraged my wife to sleep at her family’s home because, this time, she was pregnant, and I couldn’t let her spend another winter soaked in the rain.”

Azzam stayed in the tent while his family relocated to the building to stay dry.

The six-storey building, known as “Saada” - Arabic for “Happiness” - had been severely damaged and was visibly at risk of collapse. Yet at least 70 displaced people, most of them children, sought shelter there after losing their homes to Israeli bombardment.

“We had started preparing an empty apartment that we planned to share with my wife’s brother’s family before winter came,” Azzam said.

“People were living in the building because there was simply nowhere else to go, not even an empty patch of land where we could set up tents.”

Last winter, at least eight children died of hypothermia in Gaza as temperatures plummeted, most of them babies living in makeshift tents.

'My wife was due to give birth to our youngest baby boy in just two months. We had chosen the name Muhib for him, and we had already bought his clothes'

- Iyad Azzam, Palestinian father

At around 3.30am, the Saada building collapsed in less than 10 seconds, according to eyewitnesses.

“I didn’t know what had happened until a friend called me. He came to my house and told me, ‘I want you to come with me somewhere,’” Azzam recounted.

“I had a feeling something was wrong. I asked him, ‘Did something happen to my children? Is my wife okay?’ He told me that my wife’s sister was injured and in the hospital.”

Azzam’s friend drove him to the building and parked next to it.

“When I got there, I found that the entire building had collapsed to the ground. It was a feeling I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” he added.

“I thought it had been bombed. I started screaming, ‘Where are my children? Where is my wife?’”

A Civil Defence worker asked Azzam about his wife’s family name.

“I told him she was from the al-Ajla family. He told me they had pulled out my son and eldest daughter alive. Then he said, ‘Your wife and your younger son, may they rest in peace.

“I couldn’t fathom what was happening. My wife was due to give birth to our youngest baby boy in just two months. We had chosen the name Muhib for him, and we had already bought his clothes.”

‘They suddenly withdraw’

Ferial, Azzam’s eldest child, suffered a head injury, while Abdulrahman sustained injuries to his arm and leg.

But their father says the physical wounds are nothing compared with the psychological trauma the children are now struggling to cope with.

'Do I comfort them when I’m the one who needs comforting? I don’t know what to do'

- Iyad Azzam, Palestinian father 

“Before the building collapsed, Abdulrahman was awake. He told me he felt the ceiling falling and stretched his arm over his mother’s belly to protect her. The concrete fell onto his hand, while a column landed on his legs,” Azzam said.

“He remained trapped until civil defence rescuers reached him and pulled him out.”

Since then, Abdulrahman has been “reliving the scene”. He wakes several times during the night, startled, raising his arm in the same position as if still trying to protect his mother.

Ferial has spoken little about what she endured. But the Civil Defence worker who rescued her later visited Azzam with a delegation to offer their condolences and tell him what had happened.

“He said they had a very difficult time trying to pull her out. He started digging with his hands to reach her, then ended up trapped inside with her,” Azzam said.

In video footage circulated online, Ferial can be heard pleading with a rescuer to save her.

“I can’t [hold on]. Forgive me, uncle. Oh God, please don’t let me die, because I want grandma to stay alive,” she said.

Azzam said she knows that her grandmother loves her so much that she would die if anything happened to her. 

Now, he tries to help the children cope by talking to them, joking with them and keeping them occupied. But the grief can return without warning.

“They suddenly withdraw and go to the place where their mother used to sit and teach them the Quran, or they hold her belongings and start crying.

“Yesterday, I found Abdulrahman arranging her things and saying, ‘Mom liked to put this here.’

“I look at them, and I don’t know what to do. Do I comfort them when I’m the one who needs comforting? I don’t know what to do.”

Israeli bans and restrictions 

Azzam says that although he never imagined his wife and children would die in such an “ugly way”, he cannot blame his in-laws or the other families for living in the building.

“My father-in-law, who died with them, had been living in that building with all his daughters since the ceasefire took effect,” he said.

'Winter is approaching, and we are increasingly worried about the buildings that remain damaged and unstable'

- Abdullah al-Majdalawi, Civil Defence

“He had two sons. One was killed, and the other has been missing for more than a year and a half. So he had no one to support him. He searched extensively for a place where he could protect his daughters, but he couldn’t find anywhere, so he was forced to live in that building.”

During Israel's genocide in Gaza, which began following a Hamas-led attack in 2023, Israeli forces damaged or destroyed an estimated 90 percent of housing units in the territory, according to the UN. 

Almost the entire population of 2.2 million people has been internally displaced during the war. 

A report released last month by the Shelter Cluster, led by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), found that an estimated 1.98 million Palestinians in Gaza - 94 percent of the population - still need shelter and basic household assistance. 

The 21 victims of last Wednesday's collapse are among at least 61 Palestinians who have died as a result of building collapses in Gaza since the war began. 

According to Palestinian Civil Defence, Gaza's emergency and rescue agency, more than 2,000 buildings across the Strip are in urgent need of intervention or removal because they are at risk of collapse.

Gaza: One year after ceasefire, killing and displacement of Palestinians persist Read More »

In Khan Younis alone, 474 buildings have been identified as requiring demolition, including 330 that need to be completely demolished and 145 that require partial demolition.

“Winter is approaching, and we are increasingly worried about the buildings that remain damaged and unstable," Abdullah al-Majdalawi, director of public relations and media at the Civil Defence, told MEE. 

The heavy rain and strong winds could cause many buildings to collapse, he warned. 

“We need to remove these structures before the weather gets worse, but the Israeli occupation still completely bans heavy machinery and equipment required for this work.”

Under the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israel was to allow tents, mobile homes and heavy machinery and equipment needed to remove rubble and clear roads into Gaza. Yet Israel continues to ban or severely restrict their entry, leaving thousands of dangerously damaged structures standing and hundreds of thousands of people without adequate shelter. 

“Every day that these buildings remain standing is another day that people are exposed to this danger,” Majdalawi warned.

“Israel is literally turning these buildings into graves for the displaced.”

Israel's genocide in Gaza Gaza City, occupied Palestine 'They suddenly withdraw': Gaza siblings pulled from rubble left reeling after mother’s death News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0