Heat waves and war bring out snakes and scorpions in Gaza’s refugee camps

In the early hours of June 27, Mahmoud al Masry put up a photo of a decapitated snake on his Instagram account. “We found this snake in the tent after midnight. If it were not for God’s kindness and help, something bad would have happened to us,” he wrote from his shelter inside the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza.

His family was sitting down to have a meal of bread and cheese when his younger brother noticed the snake enter the tent. They panicked and rushed out. A few minutes later, Mahmoud returned with an axe and killed the snake. “I thought it was poisonous, I don’t know. We were afraid,” he told TRT World.

It was the third one he had seen that week: a coin-marked snake, about 1.5 metres-long, with a dorsal row of brown spots. Snakes had slithered across his tracks before—in the agricultural fields of Beit Hanoun in Northern Gaza, where he lived his entire life—but never one this up close, or this large. Over the last nine months, however, having lived through five displacements—from Jabalia to Al Faluja to Deir al-Balah to Rafah to Khan Younis—Mahmoud and other displaced people in Gaza have become accustomed to seeing all kinds of “strange-looking reptiles and insects” in-and-around the camps.

In Nuseirat camp in Deir al-Balah, for instance, Abdulrhman Alkahlout came across a snake when he was digging a hole in the ground for a bath. “It was about half-a-meter long, and not aggressive, I think,” he said. Then a few days later, he found a small black scorpion hiding in one of the aid packages. “Before the war, we never saw such strange creatures, but they’re now a regular feature in the tents,” Alkahlout said.

Between April and June, as temperatures rose above 100 degrees in Gaza, sightings of snakes and scorpions became increasingly common. “Of course, they’re active all year round in Palestine,” explained Imad Atrash, executive director at Palestinian Wildlife Society in the West Bank. “We only have about ten days of cool weather, which is when they hibernate. But when temperatures rise, the snakes like to go to water sources to cool their bodies, whether that’s sewerage or freshwater”.

Scorpions don’t need water, but they need shade. “They’re small and hide in rocks, so they must be hiding in the rubble now,” said Atrash.

“The bombs have contaminated the soil. You can see it in the pictures, the land is burnt and black. It’s not a comfortable habitat for scorpions or snakes. The war has affected all living creatures, all signs of life, most of the land, the stones”.

Out of the ten-to-twelve snake species that have been seen in Gaza, only two are known to be venomous: Palestinian viper (Deborah palestinae) and the painted saw-scaled viper (Echis coloratus).

“Most people don’t know this,” said Atrash. “They see a snake and assume it’s poisonous, but I am certain these are the only two such species in Gaza, though I can’t speak for the desert regions of Sinai and Negev”.

The painted saw-scaled viper is rarely seen in Gaza. Atrash’s colleagues have spotted it on two occasions in the field. But the Palestinian viper is more common, he said, adding that “there have been no records of people dying from a snake bite”.

“You know the story about the Palestinian viper snake? The Israelis couldn’t change its name because it’s the same in Arabic, Latin and English. But the Israel Nature and Parks Authority changed it in Hebrew to ‘Land of Israel Viper’,” he said with a smile. Invoking a saying in Arabic, “sleep near the snake, but beware of the scorpion,” he said snakes tend to move in search of food, but they are unlikely to harm anyone, unless they feel threatened.

Scorpions, on the other hand, are more ready to attack, he added.

“There are more scorpions than snakes,” said Abdel Rahman Rizqa, who lives in Deir al-Balah. During the day, he visits his friends at the camp who have to make seating arrangements outside since the tents heat up under the sun. “Usually, it’s just a chair or a mattress on the sand with something on top to protect us from the sunlight,” said Rizqa. “We saw scorpions up-close on two occasions. We killed one, but the other scuttled away”.

Gaza is home to three kinds of scorpions, according to Atrash. “The yellow ones are very dangerous. The brown ones are semi-poisonous. And the black ones are not poisonous at all—except for the large ones, which are also rare to come across”.

In the event of a non-venomous sting or snakebite, most adults survive, but children could be vulnerable.

“It depends on the person and their immune system,” said Atrash. “If I get bitten, I can put the wound under running water and I’ll be fine. But the little kids need to get an antibiotic immediately because the bacteria from the snake’s saliva can enter their bloodstream”.

For displaced Gaza residents, however, snakes and scorpions are the “least of their worries” as bombs rain down in frequent intervals.

Rizqa was forced to relocate after his home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in December. Then, in June, his second home in Deir al-Balah was bombed.

“The main threat still comes from the skies. It can end a life built over years in a couple of seconds,” he said.