Veterinarian Ayed Abu Najm established a shelter for cats in Rafah to save them from starvation (Anatolia)

The roads of Gaza City and Jabalia Camp, north of the Gaza Strip, are littered with the corpses of dead animals, emaciated cats and dogs searching for anything to quench their thirst among piles of waste, in a scene that paints another picture of the famine experienced by the neighborhoods in the north of the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli army preventing food aid from reaching them.

The only food for these cats and dogs is the corpses of dead animals and birds decomposing in the streets and those that their owners threw in the waste, such as domestic cats or pigeons and birds whose owners did not find food for them and so they died of hunger. Palestinian Sameh Zain al-Din, who lives in Jabalia camp, says that the bodies of dozens of dead animals are lying near piles of waste, some of which are decomposing.

Zein al-Din added in an interview with Anadolu Agency, “There is not enough food for humans in the camp and all areas in the northern Gaza Strip, so most of these animals died of hunger, as they had not eaten for many weeks.”

Close to a large waste container in Gaza City, citizen Asmaa Al-Najjar points to a cat and says, “Poor thing. She cannot find food and is eating the decaying flesh of another cat. Hunger almost kills people, let alone animals.”

Al-Najjar continues, "The smell of dead animals stings our noses and causes great harm to us, especially to those who suffer from respiratory diseases such as asthma. We try to collect these animals in places far from our homes, but the smell reaches us and we fear that it will cause harm to our health."

In other, more cruel scenes observed over the past few days, cats and dogs were eating the bodies of Palestinians killed by the occupation army in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, after ambulances were prevented from transporting them to hospitals, according to what Anadolu reported from eyewitnesses.

Witnesses said that cats and dogs were eating the decomposing bodies of Palestinians who were martyred after being targeted by the occupation army in the western areas of the city of Khan Yunis.

Ayed Abu Najm feeds some cats in the shelter he created to save them from starvation (Anatolia)

initiative

In an initiative to save cats from starvation, veterinarian Aed Abu Najm established a shelter for domestic cats in the city of Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, to care for them and feed them after their owners lost their homes or were unable to provide food for them.

The doctor says, "The Israeli war affected animals as well as humans, and they were exposed to great harm and the worst types of injustice." He added, "Many cats died of starvation or were killed by Israeli bombing."

The doctor explains, “Cat food has run out of markets and small quantities of it can be found with great difficulty, so I worked to collect quantities of it and established a shelter for cats whose owners cannot care for them.”

He points out that he is working to collect these cats, feed them, and take care of their health so that their owners can retrieve them after the war ends.

He added, "Even if the price of food rises, we seek to provide it so that the animals do not die. This is a big problem if they die of hunger while they are under our protection in the shelter."

Abu Najm expresses his dissatisfaction and resentment at what cats are exposed to as a result of the war, and the images that emerge of the difficult life that animals live in Gaza.

He calls on all parties capable of changing this tragic situation to intervene urgently to save these oppressed animals, especially since cat breeders are usually people who have a close relationship with their animals.

UN warnings

During the past two months, many human rights and international organizations have warned of famine in the Gaza Strip, due to Israel preventing aid from reaching the areas of Gaza City and the northern Strip and allowing it to be brought in limited quantities into the southern regions.

On Tuesday, Rami Abdo, head of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Watch, said that Israel is using starvation as a weapon to expel the residents of the Gaza Strip from their land and even kill them.

Abdo explained - in an interview with Anatolia - that Gaza suffers from a severe food shortage and that the amount of aid arriving has decreased from an average of 500 trucks before the war to less than 100 currently.

He said that only between 50 and 100 aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza in the past 100 days, and that there is severe hunger and a shortage of everything in the Strip.

He stated that people were starving to death. More than half a million Palestinians suffer due to harsh winter conditions and food shortages.

He continued, "Currently, more than half of Gaza's population is suffering from extreme hunger. All residents of northern Gaza are facing severe famine conditions."

He said that the occupation soldiers opened fire on those who tried to reach the food trucks that entered Gaza in small numbers from the south to the north, and that Rights Watch documented the death of dozens because of that.

He added, "We are talking about deliberate starvation, especially in northern Gaza, and children are the most affected by this situation."

He stressed that most infants need milk that does not enter the Gaza Strip, in addition to the lack of medical supplies and medicines, and that women are barely able to deal with this situation.

The ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza since October 7, 2023, has caused massive destruction to the Strip and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the United Nations, and resulted in the martyrdom of about 27,000 Palestinians and the injury of about 66,000 others.

Source: Anadolu Agency