Saeed gives shelter to 40 homeless cats rescued in Gaza

Like everyone in Gaza, Saeed has a plan of evacuation for him and his family if the Israeli military were to bomb his neighborhood, but he is not only worried about his human family; much as 40 members of his family are small felines!

“My family and I practice how we would take the cats with us when we leave,” he said.

In oreder to be able to evacuate their rescue cats, they have prepared four large boxes to put some smaller boxes in so they can get all the cats out of the house much faster.

“Leaving them behind is not an option.”

Saaed, now in his 50’s, has dedicated the last 15 years of his life to protecting Gaza’s population of abused and neglected animals.

“I started my work 15 years ago by putting food out for stray cats and dogs on the streets of Gaza,” he said.

“I would help sick and wounded animals when they came across my path.”

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He developed a reputation — soon, people were coming to him with animals who needed help. That led to him founding Gaza’s Sulala Animal Rescue.

In addition to the 40 cats he keeps at home, he oversees a shelter that’s now home to 200 dogs. It also had a horse and a donkey, but sadly tghey were both killed during recent Israeli airstrikes.

There are a lot of dogs and cats on the streets. As with the territory’s human population, many of them are traumatized by years of violence and deprivation.

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“It is impossible for me to refuse any cases,” he explained. They are poor souls who have a very difficult life in Gaza,” Saeed said.

“I think they have more love and kindness in them than humans. … I don’t want them to be in the street where they can get abused or hit by cars or shot. They get mistreated.”

Saeed is not alone in caring for animals in Gaza. In addition to his 40 cats, another 30 are in the homes of volunteers who assist at his shelter, which primarily runs on donations from those outside the territory — and still not really enough to cover all the costs.

Pet shops and animal clinics also let him obtain food and care for the animals without having to pay up front.

Still, in Gaza as elsewhere, many people “don’t see that they are creatures who experience pain and happiness like them,” he said. “Then imagine how bad they have it during wartime.”