By the time Ayman Ayyad heard the screams, darkness had fallen over the displacement camp in Deir al Balah, central Gaza. It was about an hour after evening prayers when cries rose from tents nearby. Mr Ayyad, a 27-year-old displaced Palestinian, ran towards the sound with other residents. In the darkness and bitter cold, they discovered a large mound of rain-soaked sand had collapsed on to several tents. “Some children were buried in the sand, and people were screaming,” he told The National.