A Gaza shelter’s mission to rescue lost pets and stray animals amid war

On the streets of war-torn Gaza, where Israel's military aggression rages on, Saeed Al Err continues to lead efforts to save and care for cats, dogs, and other vulnerable creatures in the besieged enclave.

Al Err, 54, is the Palestinian founder of Sulala Animal Rescue that’s been running since 2006. It claims to be the first and only licensed organisation that works to rescue and protect stray animals in Gaza.

Before the war, Sulala housed over 400 dogs in a shelter in northern Gaza, roughly the size of a football field. There were also 120 cats, 40 of which found refuge in Al Err’s own home, also in the north.

Together with his wife and eight children, the animal rescue founder was forced to move several times since the latest war began in October last year. With each relocation, they could only take some of the animals they were caring for with them — in these instances, it was a hundred plus cats under the Sulala founder's care, and several dogs with missing limbs from a section in the shelter for disabled canines.

When the Israeli military ordered civilians to evacuate south back in October, Annelies Keuleers, who volunteers for Sulala from abroad in Belgium, tells TRT World the organisation had no choice but to abandon the shelter.

Kueleers has volunteered with Sulala since 2019, helping the organisation with communication in English and managing their social media channels. Due to unreliable internet connection across Gaza, Al Err has asked her to handle all interviews on behalf of him and the animal rescue shelter.

"Saeed is now in Nuseirat, in the central area of Gaza, and the shelter is in Zeitoun, which is in the north," Keuleers shares. "The north is completely cut off from the south. There's absolutely no way of going there," she added.

Many were forced to flee following the evacuation order, but she relates that an employee who lived close to the shelter offered to stay and care for the dogs despite the risks involved.

"Then a ground invasion started and he thought 'This is too dangerous, I have to go'," Keuleers explains. "So we opened all the doors and put like 30 bags of 20kg dog food and then we had to leave — that was at the end of October."

Nine of the dogs have thus far found their way back to Al Err, she adds, after walking more than seven kilometres in the weeks that followed. Now, there are at least 15 dogs, over 300 cats, three donkeys, and one horse under the shelter's care in Nuseirat.

"He [Al Err] has been really upset about the donkeys and the horses, you know, they have to work much harder because there's no more electricity, and they have to carry big barrels of water — you have to pull them with carts because there's no water coming out of the taps," says Keuleers.

"And, unfortunately, a lot of people are acting out their pain on the donkeys and the horses, so they're really being beaten pretty badly."

Duties amidst a genocidal war

Sulala had many other volunteers on the ground in Gaza, but since the war, Keuleers says, people have naturally been "busy surviving," making them difficult to contact and less involved. "At this moment, on the ground, there is a vet who is volunteering and another person who is an employee."

She adds, "We are in a WhatsApp group with veterinarians from around the world," which allows Al Err and the team to seek advice or more specialised expertise when needed.

Al Err's older children are also part of the crew assisting him with duties, Keuleer shares, while the younger ones, including Al Err's youngest, seven-year-old Diana, who they affectionately call Dodo, used to accompany them on rounds to feed stray animals.

Today, responding to cases of injured or abandoned animals seems like business as usual for the founder of Sulala, except he is getting it done whilst under constant state of peril.

"He always used to look so much younger than 54 and now he looks older," Keuleers reflects. "He has had more grey hair since the beginning of the war. I noticed he had a cough that started in December, which he still had in February, so I know he was a bit sick.

"There's also just the lack of sleep, you know? You can't sleep when they're bombing all the time. The stress of not being responsible for these animals and not being able to feed them was very difficult too," she shares about the challenges Al Err faces as operations at the shelter continue.

In a video shared in January, Al Err said, "We have reached the point in which the food we have for our animals is close to finished, and we bought fish food. We tried it, and the cats and the dogs ate it."

After waiting several months to receive animal food aid from a couple of donor organisations abroad, Sulala received supplies for the animals in April. But stocks are already diminishing, causing further concern, especially since the Israeli military took over and closed the Rafah border crossing on May 6.

Nevertheless, the Sulala founder has made up his mind to stay and take care of everything and just wait out the war. "He has always said from the beginning of the war that leaving is just not an option because the animals can't come."

Before the war, the team would respond to about 35 cases a day, according to Keuleers.

They still get calls and messages from displaced Palestinians across Gaza hoping Sulala can help rescue beloved pets they were heartbreakingly separated from, she adds, but notes they can only usually tend to, "maybe one case every two days or every three days because it's just more difficult to get around."

In late April, the team managed to get in touch with Kamal, a veterinary student they knew who used to volunteer with the rescue shelter before the war. He is now seeking refuge in a church in the north.

"We got in touch with our friend Kamal … and he bought me five bags [of animal food],” 25-year-old Sa'ed, Al Err's oldest son, says in a video update posted on social media. This was from stock that was already inside Gaza from before the war.

“I sent him the money via my bank app. He paid the seller there and brought the food with him, and the food is there in the church so that we can refer any citizen or volunteer to him, and he will give them food," he added.

For 'the weak and the vulnerable'

Kueleers says Al Err is, "just as upset about the humans as he is about the animals." In addition to donations to help feed animals and run Sulala, the rescue shelter has been raising funds to buy and distribute food to hungry residents in Gaza.

"He cares about the weak and the vulnerable, and he will even be really compassionate towards me, you know," the Belgium-native remarks. "I'm in a safe country. I don't have to fear for my life, and he'll still be like, 'You sound tired. You should really sleep a bit' or, 'Oh, you're under so much pressure.'

Kueleers shares that Al Err has lost many friends who were killed in this war. She checks on his and everyone else's wellbeing in Sulala as often as internet connection permits and relates a conversation she had with Al Err.

"I remember, when talking to him, saying, 'You really need some mental health treatment after this. And he said, 'Yeah, all of Gaza needs it.'"