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Scores missing in building collapse · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: At least 21 people were killed in Gaza on Wednesday
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: as a building badly damaged in two separate Israeli bombing
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: raids came down on top of them. The building wasn't
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hit yesterday. It was first hit in 2024 and again
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in 2025. And residents say it had been visibly unstable
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for months. Nearly three years into the war, hundreds of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: thousands of Gazans are still living in damaged buildings, tents
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  Speaker 1: or makeshift shelters. So what needs to happen to make
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: conditions safer for the people living there? I'll put that
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  Speaker 1: question to our guest in just a moment. But first,
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  Speaker 1: the words of a resident who lives in her damaged
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  Speaker 1: home in Gaza City, despite the risk that it could collapse.
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  Speaker 2: I came back to live here because there's nowhere else
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  Speaker 2: for me to stay. The tents, as you can see,
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  Speaker 2: don't protect us from anything. We also sit beneath this
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  Speaker 2: rubble in fear. Only one room remains of what was
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  Speaker 2: once a five-storey building. Nine of us are living here,
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  Speaker 2: and I have an injured son.
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  Speaker 1: Where are we supposed to go? Right, so Shana Lowe
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  Speaker 1: is with the Norwegian Refugee Council, working as a communications advisor.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me to talk about this incident, but also, Shana,
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  Speaker 1: how much has changed in Gaza in the 11 months
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  Speaker 1: since the ceasefire. If we start with this incident, though, Shana,
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  Speaker 1: what does this voice we've just been listening to tell
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  Speaker 1: us about the choices many Gazans are still having to
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  Speaker 1: make between safety and shelter? It sounds like a particularly
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  Speaker 1: callous question to ask, but why is a family, including
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  Speaker 1: 12 children, choosing an unstable building?
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  Speaker 3: Because simply there is no alternative. And this is what
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  Speaker 3: we hear from our staff on the ground every single day,
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  Speaker 3: that they're going and visiting people, looking at their homes,
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  Speaker 3: telling them they aren't safe. And the people say, we
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: have nowhere else to go. The reality is that very
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  Speaker 3: little shelter material has entered Gaza, particularly in the last
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  Speaker 3: several months. And so people have been unable to make repairs.
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  Speaker 3: There's a massive shortage of tents and materials for makeshift shelters.
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  Speaker 3: But people also know that living in those makeshift shelters
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  Speaker 3: is incredibly uncomfortable. They're exposed to all sorts of elements.
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  Speaker 3: It's very hot in the summer, very cold in the winter.
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  Speaker 3: And so people are choosing. They don't really have a choice,
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  Speaker 3: but people are remaining in unstable buildings despite knowing the
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  Speaker 3: risks because there simply is nowhere else to go.
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  Speaker 1: Shandra, it's one thing that the bombs have stopped falling.
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  Speaker 1: That really important detail aside, how much has changed for
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  Speaker 1: the lives of Garzans? It's been nearly a year since
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  Speaker 1: the ceasefire. How much better are things today than they
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  Speaker 1: were 11 months ago?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's important to note that while, first
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  Speaker 3: of all, that while the bombs have stopped falling in
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  Speaker 3: the quantity we saw prior to the so-called ceasefire, we're
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: still seeing people in Gaza being killed nearly every day.
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  Speaker 3: Over a thousand people have been killed in the last
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  Speaker 3: 11 months. And so there still are risks. Just recently,
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  Speaker 3: we had a child who was attending some of our
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: education programs shot and killed by random fire coming from Rafah,
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  Speaker 3: where Israeli forces were stationed. So but in terms of
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  Speaker 3: what's changed in day to day, in terms of living conditions, very,
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  Speaker 3: very little people are living in tents. Two thirds of
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  Speaker 3: people who are in tents or makeshift shelters have been
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  Speaker 3: in those those shelters for over a year. And and
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  Speaker 3: those are really emergency shelter items that are meant to
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: last for maybe six months. particularly when you're in a
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  Speaker 3: place like Gaza where the weather conditions are really terrible
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  Speaker 3: and lead to the erosion of the materials more quickly
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  Speaker 3: than in other climates. You have very windy conditions. You
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  Speaker 3: have salt, salty water and salty air, and then extreme
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  Speaker 3: heat and cold. And that's leading to the destruction of
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  Speaker 3: these materials even faster than.
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  Speaker 2: We had hoped.
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  Speaker 3: And meanwhile, we're unable to get in any of the
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  Speaker 3: more durable materials needed to help Palestinians move into transitional shelter,
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  Speaker 3: which would obviously provide much more protection and prevent tragedies
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  Speaker 3: like the one we saw today from happening.
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  Speaker 1: As you're talking, we were looking at images there of
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  Speaker 1: the housing situation, if you want to put it that way.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder, under normal circumstances, if you applied... pre-war standards
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to the structures that exist in Gaza, how much of
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  Speaker 1: the accommodation would be considered liveable today as it is?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you have to think of the fact that
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  Speaker 3: most people are not living in buildings at all. They're
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  Speaker 3: still stuck in tents and makeshift shelters that are prone
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  Speaker 3: to flooding, infested with insects. They're unable to store food.
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  Speaker 3: water or food safely. But in terms of, I mean,
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  Speaker 3: people in Gaza, there wasn't a homeless issue prior to
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  Speaker 3: October 7th. People, everyone had homes. Some of them were substandard,
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  Speaker 3: but the scale of the crisis emergency that we see
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  Speaker 3: now is just unbelievable. The shelter cluster, which NRC leads,
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  Speaker 3: it's a coordinating body that works with all of the
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  Speaker 3: partners working on shelter to help organize and coordinate the
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  Speaker 3: shelter response. We just released a report last month that
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  Speaker 3: found that of the people surveyed, 94% of people in
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Gaza are in need of some type of shelter or
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  Speaker 3: basic non-food item assistance, basic household items. So the conditions
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  Speaker 3: that people are living in are just unimaginable. We have
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  Speaker 3: people living in living conditions that are at the critical
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  Speaker 3: or catastrophic level. Over 80% of Palestinians in Gaza are
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  Speaker 3: living under those conditions. And so really there's been no improvement,
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  Speaker 3: no noticeable improvement in terms of the conditions that people
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  Speaker 3: are forced to live in.
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  Speaker 1: So just isolating the housing problem, the housing supply.
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  Speaker 1: Is there a plan on the horizon that might see
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  Speaker 1: enough homes built, nearly enough, any homes built to supply
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  Speaker 1: the current need?
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  Speaker 3: No. Construction materials are not entering. We haven't even seen
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  Speaker 3: any attempts at reconstruction. And even bringing in materials to
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  Speaker 3: help improve or repair damaged shelters or tents or makeshift
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  Speaker 3: shelters is not entering. We saw last month that we
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  Speaker 3: had some timber and emergency shelter kits that had been
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  Speaker 3: approved by the Israeli authorities and then rejected at the crossing.
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  Speaker 3: And so they weren't able to enter. And we've seen
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  Speaker 3: that time and again, that basic materials, things like knives,
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  Speaker 3: things like toolkits, Things like household kitchen sets are being denied.
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  Speaker 3: We had stories of people having their kitchen sets denied,
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  Speaker 3: aid agencies having their kitchen sets denied because of butter knives.
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  Speaker 3: This is the level of arbitrariness and restrictiveness that we're
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  Speaker 3: facing in trying to save people's lives.
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  Speaker 1: So what are the most urgent practical steps that could reduce...
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  Speaker 1: that could reduce the risk of similar building collapses and
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  Speaker 1: save lives. You've talked about the difficulties, the ongoing difficulties
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  Speaker 1: of getting any materials in. What are the most urgent
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  Speaker 1: practical steps in a perfect world?
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  Speaker 3: Well, in terms of repairing the buildings, we need construction
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  Speaker 3: materials like cement, rebar, timber to reinforce the buildings. And
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  Speaker 3: then on top of that, because so few people are
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  Speaker 3: living in buildings, we need to see more of the
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  Speaker 3: emergency shelter supplies entering. We've seen very little shelter materials
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  Speaker 3: enter over the last several months, and we know that
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  Speaker 3: winter is approaching. And during winter, you have floods, you
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  Speaker 3: have heavy rains, you have winds. It's only going to
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  Speaker 3: get worse and really very little has entered.
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  Speaker 1: Just one more before I go, Shana, and just as
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  Speaker 1: a communications expert, is part of your professional brief to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: wonder or to work out why the pretty clear message
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  Speaker 1: about how bad, how dangerous, horrendous life is for Gazans,
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  Speaker 1: why it's not resonating with the world or leading 20
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  Speaker 1: big leaps forward in the quality or safety of life
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  Speaker 1: in Gaza?
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  Speaker 3: I think in the last 11 months, Gaza has really
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  Speaker 3: fallen off the agenda. It's not seen as a priority anymore.
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  Speaker 3: The ceasefire agreement came into effect 11 months ago. The
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  Speaker 3: intensity of the bombings and killings of Palestinians has diminished
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  Speaker 3: considerably since then. And world leaders are dealing with all
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  Speaker 3: sorts of other crises. We have the crisis in Iran
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  Speaker 3: and the Gulf region. And so... Energy has been directed elsewhere,
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  Speaker 3: but really we need to see a reconcerted effort, particularly
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  Speaker 3: by the donors who are funding the humanitarian response and
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  Speaker 3: yet having their aid blocked, having the agencies that they
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  Speaker 3: fund not be able to bring in aid directly or
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  Speaker 3: have their international staff in Gaza. And we need to
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  Speaker 3: see more from the international community involved. the donor community,
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  Speaker 3: in terms of pushing to get the materials in so
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  Speaker 3: that we can go and do our jobs and save lives.
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  Speaker 1: Shana Lowe from the Norwegian Refugee Council. It's been a pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for taking the time. Good luck to you
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  Speaker 1: and your colleagues.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Anthony. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: And that's all for now. Anthony Howard in Berlin. Handing
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  Speaker 1: over to you for your thoughts as we say bye
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  Speaker 1: for now.