This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

More than 40 animals, including lions, monkeys, ostriches, peacocks and a hyena departed Gaza for Jordan on Sunday, after being rescued from a zoo where many animals died of starvation and lack of care.

Thin and weakened, the 43 animals had been living in “terrible conditions,” said the Four Paws association, which organised the transfer.

The animals were stable enough to be transported to a reserve in Jordan, 300km (190 miles) from Gaza, said Martin Bauer, spokesman for the Vienna-based welfare group. Two of the lions would eventually be sent to South Africa.

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Fathy Jomaa, owner of the zoo in Rafah, southern Gaza, blamed bad economic conditions and a decade of Israeli-led blockade on the narrow coastal enclave for leaving him unable to properly feed and care for his animals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Forty animals were rescued from squalid conditions in Gaza . Photograph: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

“It is a tough decision; I feel like I am losing my family. I lived with some of those animals for 20 years,” Jomaa said, adding that economic hardship left him with no choice. “I hope they find a better place to live.”

Jomaa had come under intense criticism by animal care groups after a series of recent deaths and mishaps.

Four lion cubs died from cold during a storm in January. A monkey killed another, and a porcupine died more recently of unknown causes, said the owner. Earlier this year he de-clawed two young lions so that zoo visitors could safely pose for selfies with them.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A member of the international animal welfare charity Four Paws worker carries a sedated fox during the evacuation of the animals from a Gaza zoo. Photograph: Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

Four Paws’ veterinarian, Amir Khalil, who led the rescue mission, said cages at the Gaza zoo had become too small to house the animals and their offspring. Now only the birds remain at the site.

Four Paws was supposed to carry out the transfer in late March, but the organisation could not enter the enclave since the crossing was closed that week due to a flare-up of violence between Gaza and Israel.

Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza for security reasons after the Islamist group Hamas took control of the territory in 2007. The World Bank says the blockade has reduced the territory, home to 2 million Palestinians, to a state of economic collapse.

The head of the Land Crossings Authority at Israel’s Ministry of Defence, Shlomo Saban, said in a statement Israel had “used every means at our disposal to help transfer the animals as quickly as possible“.

Israel and Palestinian militants in the strip have fought three wars since 2008.

Four Paws says a number of animals at the zoo have died in bombings since its 1999 opening. In 2016, the group helped facilitate the transfer of the sole tiger in Gaza, eventually relocating it to South Africa.