A Palestinian mayor has backtracked on his plans of offering a bounty for killing stray dogs as it caused outrage among animal lovers.
Tayseer Abu Sneineh, the mayor of Hebron, offered 20 shekels (£5) to residents in the West Bank city of Hebron for every stray dog they shot.
Horrific videos have been shared on social media which reportedly showed dogs being killed or abused.
Diana Babish, who runs the West Bank's only dog shelter, in Beit Sahour south of Jerusalem, accused the mayor of giving "a green light to violate and kill and torture animals".
Speaking on a local radio station last week, Mr Abu Sneineh was confronted on the issue and he admitted that he had not consulted other council members but announced the idea of offering a fee for killing a dog.
"It means that if a person brings or kills five dogs and stopped their danger on the street, they will be given 100 shekels," he said.
After his comments, there was widespread outrage and attention from Palestinian and Israeli media as well as meetings with animal rights groups.
This prompted Mr Abu Sneinah to tell the BBC that there had been an "overreaction" to his comment on the dogs which he now says was meant "as a joke to highlight the problem".
He also said on Facebook that he only intended to “stir stagnant water,” in order to “find a solution to the disturbing phenomenon of stray dogs” in Hebron, according to the reports.
“This bloody campaign resulted in killing many dogs, [by] shooting, hanging, abusing, running over them by cars. What happened today is beyond humanity and ethics. No religion would accept such barbaric actions toward innocent animals,” The Animal and Environment Association in Bethlehem said in a statement.
The mayor is a convicted terrorist who was imprisoned with three others for his role in a 1980 attack that took the lives of six students, two of whom were US citizens and one Canadian.
He was sentenced to life in prison but he was released three years later in a prisoner swap between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and deported to Algeria.
He then returned to the West Bank after the Oslo interim peace agreement was signed in 1993 and says he does not regret the killings.
He was elected as mayor of Hebron in 2017.
