During Israel’s genocide in Gaza, death and destruction befell not only people, but also animals who found themselves trapped amid the siege with no ability to escape or access food and care.
In Gaza’s border areas, where most of its nineteen zoos are located, animal caretakers struggled to feed or care for the zoo animals, as the intensity of the bombing in these areas made reaching them extremely dangerous. While families fled in search of safety, dozens of animals were left in their enclosures, facing an unknown fate.
In the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Fathi Jumaa, founder of the city’s first zoo, stood before the destroyed cages in May 2024, recalling what he describes as “the hardest months of his life.”
Jumaa established the Rafah Zoo in 1999, with a collection of animals that included large predators such as lions as well as a variety of birds and other animals. In its years of operation, it had become a recreational space for Gaza’s children, as well as Jumaa’s family’s source of income.
Jumaa says his relationship with the animals went beyond work. “The animals were part of our family,” he says. “My children and I cared for them every day, and we knew each animal’s personality and needs.”
As Israeli bombardment on Rafah intensified, the Jumaa family was forcibly displaced to Khan Younis in May 2024, leaving the zoo behind with many animals trapped inside. Jumaa says they tried to evacuate as many animals as possible in the early days of the war, but the dangerous conditions nearby prevented them from carrying out a complete evacuation to the rented piece of land where he and his family stayed in tents while keeping the remaining animals in cages. Ahmad Jumaa, Fathi’s son and the zoo’s caretaker, tells The Progressive that the family managed to move some small animals and birds, but had to leave behind their lions and other predators.
“We left behind three lions,” he says, “because the bombing was extremely intense and we could not reach or transport them. We feared we could be targeted at any moment. The animals were living in fear and hunger inside the cages.”
Throughout the months of war, the family attempted several times to return to the zoo to continue evacuating the animals and providing food, but destroyed roads and heavy shelling prevented them from doing so. “We sometimes returned under bombardment to try to save what remained,” says Fathi Jumaa. “The animals were struggling to survive. Some died from hunger, while others were killed by airstrikes.”
When a ceasefire was announced in January 2025, the family returned to Rafah, where another shock awaited them. Jumaa says they found no trace of several animals, including the three lions they’d left behind.
“We searched everywhere,” he says. “We found no lions, not even skeletal remains. For us, this confirms that the occupation stole them.”
Jumaa has no physical evidence proving his suspicion, but he says their complete disappearance raised major questions among the family and zoo workers, as it is unlikely that anyone else in the border region could have taken them.
Amid collapsing economic conditions and soaring food prices, Jumaa found himself unable to provide sufficient food for the animals that survived the war. “I was paying nearly $1,000 a month in rent for the place we fled to, in addition to hundreds of dollars to feed the animals,” he says.
Some animals, he says, were able to live off of meat from dead donkeys or horses. But some of the animals that survived the initial bombings were later lost: Jumaa recalls losing a snake to malnutrition after safely evacuating it from the zoo.
During the war, Jumaa appealed to local and international organizations for help in providing food and care for the animals, but the response was extremely limited. He says only one organization offered temporary support, contributing to food and evacuation expenses, but the assistance stopped after twenty-one days, leaving him solely responsible once again.
As the crisis continued, he began searching for a way to leave Gaza with his family and the surviving animals. He says he received preliminary approval for evacuation to South Africa, on the condition that the lions be transferred to a wildlife sanctuary there. But Jumaa set several conditions with the South African government before agreeing to leave, including that it secure a monthly salary for him and his wife, ensure the continuation of his daughters’s medical studies, and compensate him for his losses from displacement and the costs of relocating the animals.
Because the zoo was the family’s only source of income, Jumaa says, leaving Gaza without these guarantees was a difficult decision. “I did not refuse evacuation because I did not want to survive,” he says. “I was afraid of leaving with my family to face an uncertain future without any guarantees.” When the South African government failed to meet his conditions, the evacuation plan collapsed, and he remained in Gaza with the animals that survived the war.
Despite the massive losses and lack of resources, Jumaa decided to reopen the zoo in March 2026, coinciding with the first day of Eid al-Fitr. He says he wants to restore life to it, and give Gaza’s children a space for joy after two years of war and devastation.
But the zoo reopened under difficult conditions, still suffering from a shortage of proper cages and the absence of suitable environments for some animals. Monkeys, for example, require trees and open spaces that are currently unavailable due to destruction and limited resources.
Nevertheless, the zoo witnessed a large turnout of children and families during Eid, in what Jumaa describes as “a message of life amid all this destruction.”
Jumaa hopes reopening the zoo will help generate income to cover food and care costs for the remaining animals, amid the ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis in Gaza. “Seeing children smile again inside the zoo gave us hope despite everything we lost,” he says.