Palestinian Dogs, Israeli Cats Find Shelter at a Kibbutz

Oct 23

Oct 23 Palestinian Dogs, Israeli Cats Find Shelter at a Kibbutz

The depth of human tragedy attendant to the Hamas-Israeli war leaves little emotional bandwidth for animal welfare, but animals – dogs, cats, and other pets – still need care. Animal rescue goes on, within and near Gaza, even under extremely dangerous and stressful conditions.

At a kibbutz in southern Israel, not far from Gaza, the veterans’ group Brothers and Sisters for Israel have set up a crisis management center to help residents displaced by the war, but with a section devoted to animal rescue. The facility is stocked with food and other pet supplies and even has its own veterinary clinic, which the group notes is funded solely by contributions with no support from the government.

“We've also rescued Palestinian dogs that have run from their side of the fence to ours,” says the animal-rescue manager identified only as “Dan” by news outlet France 24. “We don't care if it's a Palestinian dog. We don't care if it's an Israeli dog. We think all lives matter. Whether you walk on two feet or on four feet or you have wings, it doesn't matter.”

As bad as it is on the Israeli side of the Gazan border, conditions within Gaza City are so much worse. The one rescue organization in the Gaza Strip, Sulala Animal Rescue, is dealing with near-constant bombardment, lack of water and electricity, and the general chaos of war.

Sulala founder Saeed Al Err has rented two apartments in central Gaza, just south of the evacuation line ordered by the Israeli government. He has converted the space to a cat shelter, now housing about 120 cats – along with Al Err’s family. Sulala’s dog shelter, a separate facility, still stands. El Err advises evacuees who cannot take their dogs to safety to just release the animals into the streets where they can be rescued later.

Al Err manages to release sporadic updates on the group’s website between internet outages. “Hello, I am with the cats now … There is no electricity, no internet, we are cut off from the world. … Even phone calls don’t work and texts take very long to arrive. The situation is very difficult. We have secured food for [the dogs and cats] and they have water, and we will work to try to make sure it stays like this and things don’t get worse. We want peace for our people and the animals. God help us.”

You can donate to Brothers and Sisters for Israel here, or to Sulala Animal Rescue here.