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Heroic family animal sanctuary defied the odds by ‘working around the clock’ save hundreds of Gaza’s suffering animals during a year of intense Israeli bombing.
Sulala Animal Rescue volunteer Sa’ed Al-Err said he has helped care for hundreds of animals, including dogs, cats, horses and donkeys, since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in October last year.
Despite being “almost without food” and facing a shortage of medicine since the war broke out, Mr Al-Err, 26, and other volunteers work over Christmas, as well as Jewish and Islamic holidays, to save endangered animals.
“When the war started, the need to help animals only increased. This is how our strength has increased, because it is our duty,” he said The Independent.
“We’ve lost count of the animals we’ve tried to help. Every day we receive phone calls from people in the Gaza Strip.
“We see many animals wounded under the ruins of war. They were also often involved in car accidents or injured by people.
“But in the Gaza Strip there is almost no food for the animals, and what little food is left to the vendors is sold at astronomical prices.
“We are also running out of medicines that we had before the war, and now it is much more difficult to buy them because they are very expensive.”
Many Palestinians have had to abandon their pets as they flee the conflict as millions of people have been repeatedly displaced across the territory – some animals have even been left at the Egyptian border as people have been evacuated.
The shelter was forced to leave hundreds of dogs in the shelter with open doors and little food before being evacuated south earlier this year, said Annelies Keuleers, a translator for the organization.
“It’s really challenging and stressful, and especially for them, they don’t know how many more times they’re going to have to move and they refuse to be without animals,” Ms Keuleers said.
“They are looking for a more permanent place to move to the south, but they have to take all the animals with them,” she added.
As the rescue faced further displacement and shortages of essential supplies, it called on the Israeli government to allow food and medicine for animals in Gaza as part of an international group of animal rescue organizations.
In Defense of Animals, an American animal welfare campaign, published an open letter to the Israeli Knesset and members of the war cabinet urging them to allow rescuers to help animals.
However, the organization has yet to receive a “unified response” from the Knesset despite sending over 30 other emails to parliament, the statement said.
The sanctuary was set up in 2006 by Mr El-Arr’s 50-year-old father, Saeed El-Arr, after he said he saw government officials encouraging the killing of stray animals.
He embarked on a nine-month training course in Russia and registered Sulala in Gaza City as an official charity to operate as a shelter for dogs, cats and donkeys.
“Our whole family loves animals and cares for them. This is because of our father and Sulala’s director and founder, Saeed Al-Err,” said Mr Al-Err.
“We were founded on this principle. Strength comes from the heart. We cannot stop this work even for a minute. This is how we were raised. We will continue to save animals until our last breath,” he said.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli air and ground offensives have killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.