Lion cubs relocated from Gaza to Jordan

GAZA CITY — Two lions cubs were on Sunday taken from a Gaza Strip refugee camp to Jordan, their former owner said, after their maintenance became too great a financial burden.

"We're very sad. The two lions were like children to us," Saadi Al Jamal said of the five-month old male and female big cats named Max and Mona.

Al Jamal, a Palestinian Authority security employee who lives in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza and is a father to six, had planned to make some money by leasing the lions out to amusement parks, seaside resorts and restaurants.

Feeding them cost Jamal about 120 shekels ($32, 29 euros) a day, he told AFP, a tall order in Israeli-blockaded Gaza where prices have soared since a devastating war last summer with Israel.

He also failed to convince the Hamas rulers of the Palestinian enclave to provide him land on which he could establish a zoo for the lions and other animals.

Al Jamal said he was giving the animals to the Jordanian sanctuary for free.

British animal welfare group Four Paws, which facilitated the move, said last month it was seeking to rescue the cubs from their "hugely inappropriate situation" in which they were growing to be a threat to their surroundings.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit that coordinates with Gaza, announced on Sunday it had coordinated the transfer of Max and Mona to Jordan through Israel.

In September, Four Paws facilitated the transfer of three lions from Al Bisan zoo in Gaza to Jordan after the zoo came under heavy fire during the 50-day conflict which ended on August 26.

Four Paws said Max and Mona's parents were most likely smuggled into Gaza by underground tunnels from Egypt. It estimated there were currently 40 big cats in Gaza.

Jamal said he had asked Four Paws to help him visit Max and Mona in Jordan.