Displaced Lebanese are calling on volunteers to enter bombed areas to retrieve their pets after Israeli bombing forced them to flee their homes hastily.
Volunteers risk their lives to rescue pets from bombed southern Beirut
Maggie Shaarawi, vice president of the Lebanese charity Animals, is one of the rescuers.
“Many people had to quickly evacuate their homes. In most cases, it was impossible to rescue the cats right away because they were stressed from the exposure,” she says.
“Our goal is just to get in, rescue, and leave.”
On Thursday, Shaarawi and two others helped residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs retrieve eight traumatized cats.
Via a video call, a worried woman wearing a white scarf led them into the living room where she left with Fifi, Leo, Blackie, Teddy, Thanda, Ziki, Kitty, and Masha.
“We were able to find everyone,” Shaarawi said triumphantly.
With all their might and speed, they succeeded in coaxing the petrified felines out from under the green velvet sofa, and gently lifted each cat into its storage box.
“Fortunately, we were able to get them out because most of the area had been destroyed,” she said.
A strike struck the suburb where they were preparing to go to another house.
“This is the first time I’ve been shocked at close range. I’m lucky to have survived and returned home,” Shaarawi said.
Since September 23, Israel has sharply stepped up airstrikes against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, killing more than 1,000 people and forcing another million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese figures.
Many evacuees bring pets with them.
This week, a teenager was seen cradling a ginger cat to her chest as she fled a southern village.
Shaarawi said some people are ignoring evacuation orders to be with their pets.
“So far we have recovered around 120 fish from the outskirts of Beirut and another 60 from the south,” she said.
After a near-miss due to Israeli airstrikes, Shaarawi and his team returned to the southern suburbs on Friday to retrieve more pets.
“When cats are scared, they turn into tigers,” she says.
Parking their cars on the outskirts of a heavily shelled Hezbollah stronghold, they arrived in short order on mopeds.
“War is traumatic for both animals and humans. They are bombed every day and they don’t know what’s happening,” she said.
“They’re just waiting for their owners to come back.”
In some cases, our team may not be able to reach your pet in time.
On a mission to retrieve the three cats on Thursday, they found one of them dead, its limbs stiff and its fluffy white fur covered in dust.
The other two were nowhere to be found, but Shaarawi said he was sure they did not survive. “The house was completely destroyed.”
Vid Are/Kill
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.
