Twin Gaza lion cubs die just days after birth
Two-day-old lion cubs Fajr and Sjel are seen at a zoo in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on November 19, 2013 . The cubs’ mother and father were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt four years ago to live in a Hamas-run public zoo. It is the first time in years that cubs are born in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Twin lion cubs, Fajr and Sjel, died three days after they were born in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya at the Bissan amusement park.
The Guardian sourced an anonymous interior ministry official who said the cubs were in poor health, inadequately fed and that the father was behaving aggressively towards them.
The lion cubs were announced through Hamas' armed wing via Twitter on Tuesday:
The Hamas-run town gave the names in reference to the one-year anniversary of an eight-day conflict with Israel. Sijil, Arabic for clay, also happens to be the name Hamas calls the conflict. Fajr, translated as dawn, are some of the missles Hamas previously fired at Israel, according to The Guardian. Israel refers to the conflict as the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense.
The twin cubs' mother and father were smuggled from Egypt four years ago.