A Dutch charity faces huge challenges in the occupied territories, as it fundraises to care for dogs, cats and donkeys.
The first emergency clinic for injured animals is due to open in the Palestinian city of Jenin later this month.
Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank city have left hundreds of homes destroyed, leaving countless animals without food, shelter or medical care.
Netherlands-based charity Animal Heroes is facing many literal roadblocks and obstructions to launching a clinic in the conflict zone. But since 7 October 2023, the small team has proven its determination to alleviate animal suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, and support local people looking after animals.
These ‘heroes’ include 36-year-old Maryam Hassan Barq, nicknamed “the cat lady of Gaza” for her steadfast support of 65 cats. And 25-year-old A’aed Mahmoud Abu Nejem, a veterinary doctor running the charity’s pop-up clinic in Gaza, who was injured in an airstrike hours before the ceasefire took effect 19 January. Despite his injuries, he resumed his work last week.
We spoke to Animal Heroes founder Esther Kef, who returned from a visit to the West Bank in February, to hear about the challenges of providing animal aid in the Palestinian territories.
Violence against animals is increasing in the West Bank
The fate of people and animals in the West Bank is inextricably linked.
“The situation for animals is horrible because since 7 October, many people are without jobs because they live off tourism and construction,” explains Kef.
Financial desperation is stoking tension in communities, she says, which triggers increased violence against animals. “What we’re seeing is like 10, 20 animals being completely kicked into pieces by people just for no reason, just to express violence,” she says.
Animal Heroes supports Bethlehem Shelter, the only registered animal charity in the West Bank, founded by another passionate animal lover, Diana Babish. But over the course of three visits since November 2023, Kef has seen conditions deteriorate.
Designed for 100 animals, the basic shelter is now holding around 200 dogs. Outdoor fences had to be shut after Babish realised that people were coming at night to hurt and poison them.
“People know only violence,” Kef speculates. “And when the tension increases, if violence is all you know, it’s not too hard to think that then also the violence increases.”
The number of animals being hit on roads has also tripled, according to vets funded by Animal Heroes.
“On a positive note, [the vet] says that for the first time […] younger people now are starting to bring in the animals left on the street that have been hit,” Kef says.
Her charity has also partnered with Bethlehem University and the Ministry of Education to start an awareness programme for children to teach them about animal welfare. They spoke at two schools during their recent visit, working up from the importance of bees to the mistreatment of dogs.
How will the emergency clinic in Jenin help animals?
There are an estimated 2,000 stray dogs in Jenin, but no single organisation dedicated to their care.
A revered animal protector in the community, Babish gets calls every day from people in Jenin saying they have found an injured cat or dog. She tends to send a taxi to take the animal to a facility in Nablus, typically an hour’s drive away.
But with increased roadblocks in the West Bank due to Israel’s so-called military expansion, the journey can now take half a day.
To save more lives where they are being jeopardised, the animal protectors have acquired – for free – space in an old house four kilometres from the centre of Jenin. Two young vets have volunteered to run the clinic, under the supervision of acclaimed British vet Jenny McKay.
It cost €5,000 for the equipment to set up the practice. With their ambitions to treat around 150 animals a month from across the West Bank, medical care is expected to add €3,500 a month to the charity’s bills.
Animal Heroes is appealing for donations to help cover the supply of antibiotics and other first aid, and secure more advanced equipment including an X-ray machine.
What happens once the animals have been treated? It’s a troubling question in a conflict zone.
Previously, Babish was skilled at sending her dogs across the world, says Kef. “Diana is the type of person you don’t say no to.” But with fewer and costlier flights from Tel Aviv, and no flight volunteers to accompany the animals out, adoptions ground to a halt.
The Bethlehem Shelter is prioritising puppies and vulnerable dogs that need to recover after treatments. Babish continues to use her network to get animals fostered in Israel, via Israeli animal aid organisations.
“The problem is,” Kef adds, “what happens if the IDF turns Jenin into a second Gaza, where no one goes in and nobody gets to go out? If that’s the case, then obviously the roads are completely blocked, and the animals will need to be just left freely back on the street again.”
Animal Heroes is looking into renting a shelter, in preparation for this worst case scenario.
Animal heroes in Gaza continue life-saving work
When we speak on 28 February, Kef is eagerly anticipating the arrival of a truckload of aid into Gaza, as part of the Animals in Gaza Alliance with the UK’s Safe Haven for Donkeys and Finland’s Animal Aid without Borders.
But on 2 March, Israel again blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into the heavily-bombed territory, meaning that trucks containing medicine and food are still stuck at the Egyptian border.
“The impact is profound, because there is hardly any medicine in Gaza for animals, and yet so many animals are in desperate need of them,” Kef writes. “Every day this shipment is delayed, the suffering of donkeys and horses is prolonged.”
As well as operating a pop-up clinic, Animal Heroes funds people taking care of animals. Among the most remarkable of these is Maryam Hassan Barq, who refused to abandon 65 rescue cats when the IDF order came to evacuate her home in northern Gaza.
“I consider them like my children,” Maryam said during an interview with Animal Heroes in November, at a time when she was suffering from starvation and dehydration. “I am fully aware that I might die at any moment for staying in the north, but from the beginning of the war, I took the decision that we either live together or we die together.”
“There is no other place for them and I cannot transfer them anywhere else in these dangerous conditions due to their number, and there’s no safe place to go to anyway,” she explained. “Our life feels like a nightmare, to say the least, but we live on. I know it sounds crazy.”
A dozen cats died before the ceasefire emerged in January. Afterwards, Maryam was able to buy vegetables for herself for the first time in months, and chicken for the cats – which need protein. With the crossing closed again, she is again concerned for their lives.
How can you support Animal Heroes?
“People like Diana, like Maryam, they’re very humble people,” says Kef. “They just care about helping animals and they even risk their own lives to do so. So that’s what inspires me to do this every day.”
Esther was inspired to found Animal Heroes in 2023 after meeting similarly dedicated people in need of animal aid assistance in Ukraine. The lean organisation has since grown from three to 25 volunteers.
Animal Heroes is fundraising to support its medical response team in Gaza here. Its new fundraiser, to help injured animals in the West Bank – including through the new emergency clinic – has recently launched here.
