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South Lebanon Man Cares for Pets Left Behind as Residents Flee Israeli Strikes

In this photo provided by Mashala Shelter, Hussein Hamza feeds dogs at his animal shelter in Kfour, south Lebanon in 2024. (Mashala Shelter via AP)
In this photo provided by Mashala Shelter, Hussein Hamza feeds dogs at his animal shelter in Kfour, south Lebanon in 2024. (Mashala Shelter via AP)
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South Lebanon Man Cares for Pets Left Behind as Residents Flee Israeli Strikes

In this photo provided by Mashala Shelter, Hussein Hamza feeds dogs at his animal shelter in Kfour, south Lebanon in 2024. (Mashala Shelter via AP)
In this photo provided by Mashala Shelter, Hussein Hamza feeds dogs at his animal shelter in Kfour, south Lebanon in 2024. (Mashala Shelter via AP)

A dog clings to Hussein Hamza inside a car as he pans his camera around to show the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon.
“Poor thing. Look at this, he’s clinging to me out of fear,” Hamza says in the video he posted online. “A missile hit here,” he said, his voice shaking.
As Israel pummels southern Lebanon with airstrikes, tens of thousands of residents are fleeing their homes in fear. But Hamza is staying. His mission is to care for the dogs and other animals left behind.
He runs an animal shelter that houses 200 dogs in the village of Kfour. Recently, he has also been driving around towns and villages in the south, looking for stray animals and abandoned pets to feed, The Associated Press reported.
“I opened bags of food and left them water. I’m relying on God,” said Hamza as he spread food hundreds of meters away from the shelter he runs, in case the dogs need to escape the facility when airstrikes come too close.
With his town under constant bombardment, Hamza, 56, refused to abandon the animals in his care.
Despite the danger, Hamza drives around looking for stray animals and pets left behind by families, many of them abandoned behind locked gates. He brings them food, and then posts the videos online.
“Come here, come here! I got you food,” Hamza called to a dog hiding behind a fence in one of his online videos. “At least unleash your dogs,” he pleads with residents in his videos. “The dog owners had to escape on foot and couldn’t take them.”
In the midst of the chaos, Hamza has become a lifeline for many who reach out to him, hoping he can get food to their pets.
“This nice man called me, crying. They (the family) left the dogs behind the fence, and they couldn’t take them,” he said. “I just got the dogs dry food.”
Hamza’s journey has been perilous. On more than one occasion, he’s narrowly avoided airstrikes.
His work extends beyond dogs. “We found a chicken on the road,” Hamza explained in another clip. “It flew from a pickup truck. I will take it home.”
Hamza’s shelter has attracted support online, allowing him to buy 200 bags of dog food to distribute to the dogs in the region.
Even so, the danger keeps mounting. “I hope someone can take some load off my shoulders,” Hamza said as he picked up an elderly stray dog off the street and into his car.
“God help people. At the time of a strike, people lose it and don’t know what to do,” he said while dropping off food and water in remote areas.

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Inside Hezbollah’s Kamikaze Drone That Hit Israel's Binyamina

A photo released by the Israeli army spokesperson of the “Sayyad 107” drone.
A photo released by the Israeli army spokesperson of the “Sayyad 107” drone.
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Inside Hezbollah’s Kamikaze Drone That Hit Israel's Binyamina

A photo released by the Israeli army spokesperson of the “Sayyad 107” drone.
A photo released by the Israeli army spokesperson of the “Sayyad 107” drone.

The Israeli security apparatuses are investigating the type of kamikaze drone that Hezbollah used on Sunday evening to hit a Golani Brigade base near Binyamina south of Haifa, killing four soldiers and wounding about 90 others, including 12 soldiers with serious injuries.

Ron Ben-Yishai, a security expert at the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, said that from the limited details currently available, the drone was likely a Sayyad 107 model, a UAV manufactured in Iran and widely used by Hezbollah, which also produces it in large quantities in Lebanon.

“The model’s flight path can be programmed to frequently change altitude and direction, making it difficult to detect and track,” Ben-Yishai said.

“It has a range of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) and is small, with a very low radar signature compared to larger, metal-made UAVs. Its detection relies on the heat emitted by the engine, which is also challenging to identify via optical means,” he added.

According to the security expert, the military is examining all possibilities, but it's almost certain that the UAV, which hit a critical target and caused many casualties, wasn't only a specialized model but also Hezbollah managed to overwhelm or disrupt the Israeli army’s detection systems by launching a mixed salvo of rockets and two other drones aimed at the Western Galilee.

Ben-Yishai noted that the UAVs continued toward the sea off the northern coast and the Iron Dome system intercepted one.

The Israeli army dispatched fighter jets and combat helicopters to track the remaining UAV, but contact with it was lost, he said.

The expert said it is possible that the UAV was pre-programmed to sharply descend toward the ground or the sea and continue flying at low altitude, exploiting the coastal terrain and then the hills of the coastal plain to evade interceptors.

“Hezbollah has gained considerable experience in operating UAVs over the past year, successfully causing numerous casualties among civilians and primarily IDF soldiers at remote bases,” Ben-Yishai wrote, adding that over half of the drones launched by Hezbollah are intercepted, either by the Israeli army fighter jets sent to engage them or by the Iron Dome and David's Sling systems.

However, he noted, due to the UAV's small size and very weak radar signature, the Iron Dome's fire control radars and the optical sensors on fighter jets and helicopters often lose track of them, especially in hilly areas where radar echoes from the terrain are dominant and misleading.

Ben-Yishai revealed that the Israeli army and defense industries have been trying to find a solution to this issue at least since the current war began, but there is still no effective detection and interception solution.

He said the sophisticated UAVs manufactured by Iran are equipped with inertial navigation systems in addition to satellite navigation, enabling them to stay on course and strike their targets even when faced with GPS jamming.

“This is intended to mislead them, but Iran and Hezbollah sometimes bypass the American GPS jamming by using unique satellite navigation systems developed by Russia or China,” Ben-Yishai said.