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A lion barely raises its head as children peer through the bars. Nearby, chimpanzees sit listless in their enclosure. At a makeshift zoo near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, most of the animals on display are malnourished and worn down by the same shortages of food and medicine that have gripped the territory’s human population.

That any of them are alive at all is largely down to one man, zoo owner Mahmoud Gomaa, who has spent nearly three years relocating his animals from town to town to keep them out of the path of the war.

Gomaa originally ran his zoo in the southern city of Rafah. He fled in 2024 when Israeli forces attacked and occupied part of the area, moving what animals he could save from place to place before settling in Nuseirat this year and reopening to the public.

“In the beginning of the war, people were looking for a way to survive… and I was looking for a way to save the animals more than saving myself,” Gomaa told news agency Reuters.

However, he was forced to leave three lions, several crocodiles and a group of African ostriches behind in Rafah when he fled. When he was able to return months later, only the bones of the crocodiles and ostriches remained. The three lions, which he had locked inside their cages before leaving, had vanished without a trace.

Frozen meat and constant fear

Gaza had several zoos before the war, home to lions, eagles and other exotic species, according to municipal records. Keeping any of them running now is an uphill task, starting with the basic problem of food in a territory where feeding people is itself a struggle.

“Owners are currently feeding them frozen meat,” veterinarian Nidal Fadel told Reuters. “This is a catastrophe and a wrong nutritional plan because in nature they eat fresh prey.”

Beyond hunger, the animals carry the psychological weight of the war around them. Amir Khalil, a vet who has led rescue missions into Gaza for the animal welfare group Four Paws, said lions in particular pick up on sounds most humans would miss. “Bombing and constant conflict create enormous stress and fear for them,” he said.