As children walked into the zoo near Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, they found a lion barely looking back at them through the bars of its cage and chimpanzees sitting listlessly in their enclosure.
Many of the animals were malnourished, weakened by shortages of food, medicine, and vaccines. But they were still alive, largely thanks to the efforts of zoo owner Mahmoud Gomaa.
He originally ran the attraction in the southern city of Rafah, but said he had to flee in 2024.
As the Israel-Hamas war raged, he moved the surviving animals from town to town before finding a place in Nuseirat in central Gaza earlier this year.
There, he reopened the zoo, hoping to give traumatized youngsters something to enjoy after nearly three years of destruction.
Zookeeper returned to find animal bones
"In the beginning of the war, people were looking for a way to survive... and I was looking for a way to save the animals more than saving myself," Gomaa told Reuters.
Municipal records show that there were a number of zoos in Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war erupted, displaying exotic and wild animals, including lions and eagles.
Anyone trying to keep one open now faces enormous challenges, vets and animal experts said, not least in getting food in a territory struggling to feed its human population.
"Owners are currently feeding them frozen meat," veterinarian Nidal Fadel said. "This is a wrong nutritional plan because in nature they eat fresh prey."
The animals themselves are bearing the brunt of the war - sometimes directly.
When Gomaa fled Rafah, he said he had to leave behind three lions, several crocodiles, and some African ostriches.
A few months later, Gomaa returned and claimed he only found the bones of the crocodiles and the ostriches. Those three lions, which he had locked in their cages, had disappeared.
Animals traumatized by sounds, sights of war
There is also the trauma caused by the sound and sight of the conflict raging around them.
"Lions can detect sounds and disturbances that humans may not notice," said Amir Khalil, a veterinarian who has led several trips to Gaza by the animal welfare organization Four Paws and rescued other zoos' animals.
"Bombing and constant conflict create enormous stress and fear for them," he added.
In Nuseirat, the surviving lion barely looked up at the visitors. But the children had better luck with some of the other animals, letting parrots ride on their shoulders and petting smaller monkeys.
It was a rare chance to relax in an enclave still facing regular airstrikes against Hamas, despite a fragile ceasefire. Israel's military, which says its attacks are aimed at Hamas terrorist targets, did not immediately respond to questions about the conflict's impact on civilian facilities like zoos and their animals.