GAZA: As children walked into the zoo near Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, they found a lion barely looking back at them through the bars of its cage and chimpanzees sitting listlessly in their enclosure. Many of the animals were malnourished, weakened by shortages of food, medicine and vaccines. But they were still alive, largely thanks to the efforts of zoo owner Mahmoud Gomaa.
He originally ran the attraction in the southern city of Rafah, but said he had to flee when Israeli troops attacked and occupied part of the area in 2024.
As the conflict raged, he moved the surviving animals from town to town before finding a place in Nuseirat in central Gaza earlier this year.
There, he reopened the zoo, hoping to give traumatised youngsters something to enjoy after nearly three years of destruction.
“In the beginning of the war people were looking for a way to survive … and I was looking for a way to save the animals more than saving myself,” Gomaa told media.
There were a number of zoos in Gaza before the conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted, displaying exotic and wild animals including lions and eagles, municipal records show. –Agencies
