Activists risk their lives to rescue animals in areas of Lebanon hit by Israeli airstrikes

BEIRUT (AP) — Hours after an Israeli strike destroyed a three-story building in Beirut, killing at least 10 people, Maggie Sharawi received a telephone call from a person living nearby saying that the attack had killed a cat that had several kittens.

While civil defense members were combing through the rubble for human victims or survivors, Sharawi and other members of Animals Lebanon, an animal protection organization, also rushed to the scene in Beirut’s central Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood Friday.

They began climbing through rubble, twisted metal and collapsed walls to reach the kittens. The animals, just a few days old, were pulled out, put in a plastic carrier and taken away as the rescuers continued searching for other cats whose cries could be heard emerging from under the debris.

Sharawi said that over the past three weeks they have managed to rescue 190 animals from strike sites in Beirut and its southern suburbs. In some cases, she added, they give the animals back to their owners while others remain at the group’s shelter in the Lebanese capital.