Mariam and her sisters give shelter to homeless cats in Gaza

Mariam, Raesa, and Elham turned their three respective houses into cat shelters, caring for stray cats and small kittens from their neighbourhood by providing them with food and medical care.

Mariam, the youngest of the three sisters, still lives with her parents in the al-Zaitoun neighbourhood of eastern Gaza city. The 29-year-old is fostering eight cats she rescued.

Raesa believes that the suffocating economy is no excuse to ignore the cats in dire need of help and shelter in Gaza.

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“Someone who went through so many hardships and experienced what it is like to be hungry and helpless cannot ignore others’ suffering,” she says.

“Cats starve and get depressed just like humans do,” she added.

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In the summer of 2014, during a military attack on the Gaza Strip that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians – mostly civilians – and left 100,000 homeless, Raesa recalls her attempts to keep the cats safe inside her apartment.

All the cats were sprinting across the house and seeking refugee under the beds and couches whenever the sound of an explosion rocked the neighbourhood.

“Cats also get scared of loud noises and explosions, just like us,” she says.

Mariam and her two sisters aim to open a cat protection and adoption centre where they would provide help for dozens of cats and look for caring families to adopt them.

“We basically need to secure a space to keep the cats in, hire a guard and a vet, and buy food and other requirements,” Mariam says, while cuddling a couple of kittens. “

According to Mariam, this “remains a dream,” since they still have not found an animal welfare organisation willing to fund it.