As Israeli forces continue blocking aid, including water, to Gaza, horrifying videos showed stray animals eating Palestinians' corpses, with some even digging up gravesites.
Dozens of Palestinians have shared horror stories in which they have found family members whose corpses had been picked at by animals, according to reporting by Daraj Media.
By the time Mahmoud Abu Rizq was able to enter Rafah, a southern Gaza city, his brother's body had decomposed with signs of being eaten. Since it was in a "very dangerous" area where the Israeli military continued striking, Abu Rizq had to wait another eight days to retrieve the body.
"I never imagined in my worst dreams that my brother would die, and dogs and cats would eat his body in front of me and I couldn't do anything," he told Daraj. "How and why does this happen to the Palestinian people?"
New shocking and horrific footage from Gaza, as the hypocritical world we live in, preaches about human rights.
— Reem Al-Harmi ريم الحرمي (@Reem_AlHarmi) December 23, 2024
Here, before your very eyes, Israel has been left to act with impunity for decades, and we have reached a point where stray cats and dogs are eating the bodies of… https://t.co/OBFPjX91rk pic.twitter.com/96PKoHPHMQ
In February, Israeli forces killed 13 of Hanin al-Dayah's family members, including her father and brother, in a missile strike in northern Gaza. While their torn bodies lay, their families had to wait to retrieve their bodies while they remained under threat.
"I was chasing cats in the streets to collect parts of the remains of my father, brother and relatives and bury them," al-Dayah told Daraj, adding that she is still haunted by the sound of the animals eating the remains.
Additionally, Raed Hammad, a resident in Khan Younis, another southern Gaza city, said cats and dogs have grown "wilder and larger." He watched as cats gathered around and ate a dead body in March during an Israeli raid on a medical facility.
"It was a cruel scene," Hammad told Daraj. "I never imagined that I would see a cat eating the body of a dead person while I stood helpless."
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