Makeshift petting zoo offers Gaza children rare moment of Eid joy.

.GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE - MAY 29, 2026: Children in the Nuseirat refugee camp sought a brief escape from the ongoing war and displacement by visiting a small, makeshift petting zoo set up to bring comfort during Eid al-Adha. With the vast majority of recreational and entertainment areas across the Gaza Strip left unusable or completely destroyed by active conflict, the small wildlife sanctuary in central Gaza became a highly popular destination for families looking to mark the holiday. Visitors crowded the small enclosures for a rare opportunity to see a lion, a lioness, monkeys, and parrots up close, offering children a temporary reprieve from the harsh realities of the surrounding war environment. The facility's owner, Fethi Cuma, told reporters that he originally established Gaza’s very first full-scale zoo in Rafah back in 1999. However, intense military operations forced him to flee the southern city. Determined to keep his surviving animals alive and provide a community service, Cuma evacuated what he could to Nuseirat to set up this scaled-down, temporary site. He stated that his primary goal was to bring a smile back to the faces of traumatized local children, even if only for a brief moment. Enes el-Atras, one of the visitors, noted that most of the zoos in Gaza had been destroyed in attacks, and said he wanted to bring his children to an environment where they could breathe freely during the holiday. El-Atras added that despite the highly restricted space and limited resources available to keep the animals fed and sheltered, the simple chance to interact with wildlife brought immense happiness to the displaced children. On Wednesday, the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, 10 Palestinians were killed, including two girls and two women, and 18 others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house near Al-Israa Tower on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in central Gaza City. Israeli attacks have killed 910 Palestinians and injured 2,747 since a ceasefire took effect more than seven months ago, according to the Gaza Media Office. Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, killing more than 72,000 Palestinians and injuring over 172,000, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian figures.