Traumatized Palestinians in Gaza care for shocked pets
A smashed goldfish bowl, panicked birds during a cage, many animals needing treatment. The loss or injury of treasured pets has added to the grief and trauma of Gaza residents after last month’s deadly conflict.
Neriman, a nine-year-old Palestinian girl, clutched a glass jar holding her goldfish Hoor, delighted it had survived after her other one, Hooriya, died in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City.
In the latest war, Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, also as some fighters, authorities there say.
Fire by Palestinian militants claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child, an adolescent and an Israeli soldier.
Pets also suffered, also because the children who owned them, consistent with AFP.
“I was so sad that Hooriya died and that i cried once I buried her within the field,” said Neriman, of her first fish, whose name meant “Mermaid” in Arabic.
“But i used to be so happy that Hoor had survived,” she added of her second fish.
At an animal clinic in Gaza City, Amani Abu Shaaban held a fluffy cat to her chest as they waited to ascertain a vet.
“My cat has been very scared since the war. She refuses to eat, and her hair is rupture ,” she said.
“Even the sound of a mobile ringing freaks her out.”
Nearby, vet Mutasem Qaddoura examined two cats, one after the opposite .
One needed an operation for a broken leg, the opposite was dehydrated and malnourished.
Dozens of pets owners have flocked to his clinic since Gaza’s May 21 ceasefire though supplies to treat them are scarce.
“The state of medicine is disastrous in Gaza,” Qaddoura said.
“We use X-ray machines intended for humans and platinum screws meant to repair children’s bones to treat the animals.”
– Pets left behind –
Neriman and her family had been forced to escape their home on May 13, after an Israeli officer warned neighbors of an imminent strike on a close-by bank.
In the panic she left behind her fish, also as two parakeets, Alloosh and Malloosh, given to her by her father for her sixth birthday.
But soon after, she started worrying.
“I just had to travel home with my father to urge them,” she said.
When they returned, she found a special outfit she had laid out on her bed for the Eid holidays covered in rubble, the bed collapsed and therefore the windows blown in.
“I heard Alloosh and Malloosh chirping under the rubble, and that i found the fish bowl broken,” she said.
Hooriya had died, but they saved Hoor, a scene shown during a video which has since gone viral on social media.
– Desperate dogs –
South of Gaza city, 30-year-old Adel al-Wadia said he had tried to feed a number of the dogs at the coastal strip’s main dog shelter during the bombing.
“They were howling with fear and hunger and it made me sad, so I risked trying to urge as close as possible to offer them food,” he said.
The shelter’s founder, Saeed el-Aer, said he returned after the ceasefire to seek out many of his canine wards scared and famished.
Dozens had panicked and escaped during the 11-day war, and a number of other were wounded, he said.
“At least three dogs need an operation, including one who needs a paw amputated,” he said.
Other animals were even less lucky.
Aer pointed to a neighborhood beyond the shelter’s fence.
“Over there, we buried the donkey and therefore the horse after we found that they had died from shrapnel wounds,” he said.
