Israeli border towns face second Gaza ‘invasion’

Packs of stray dogs from Gaza are crossing the border, terrorizing residents of Israeli border towns.

By World Israel News Staff

Roaming packs of stray dogs are crossing from the Gaza Strip into Israel, terrorizing and even attacking residents of towns in southwestern Israel, including some targeted by invading Hamas terrorists two years ago.

While the western Negev has long suffered from the phenomenon, since the Hamas invasion of October 7th, 2023, large numbers of stray dogs have taken advantage of breaches in the security barrier separating Israel from the coastal enclave, with entire packs migrating across the border.

There are no official estimates gauging the extent of the migration of stray and feral dogs into Israel, though residents testify to the sharp increase in sightings.

“The number is absurd,” a senior official from the Eshkol Regional Council said, according to a report by Yedioth Aharonoth

Bella Alexandrov, ‏CEO of the Western Negev Cluster, said that the government has thus far failed to take action, forcing towns and regional councils to handle the problem on their own.

“The feeling is that the state is leaving local authorities to deal alone with a national problem,” Alexandrov told the Hebrew daily.

The dogs, Alexandrov continued, often “band together into large groups, sometimes dozens of dogs.”

Residents are sometimes confronted by large packs of stray dogs who have threatened and even attacked locals.

Local authorities have been overwhelmed by the sharp rise in the stray dog population, with only a single animal shelter operating in the region, supported by a small and shrinking staff.

Already struggling to respond to the growing number of complaints, the shelter’s team lost two veterinarians and a kennel manager following a scandal half a year ago, after animal rights activists documented cases of neglect and extremely poor conditions at the shelter.

Alexandrov said those staffers who stayed on are “burned out,” forced to confront “disturbing” situations while facing public criticism and harassment by animal rights activists – all while operating on an insufficient budget.

Meanwhile, many residents say they are afraid to leave their homes.

Brurya Karni Hadas, a resident of Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, says that after she was confronted by a snarling pack of stray dogs about six weeks ago, she no longer goes out for walks outside the kibbutz.

A memo summarizing a meeting between local authorities and the Agriculture Ministry’s veterinary services director warned that there are reports “almost daily” of attacks by stray dogs in the Gaza frontier.

A lack of resources has hampered efforts to catch and shelter the animals, leading to calls for destroying the animals, given the danger they could pose to residents.

Yet operational considerations in the area, coupled with legal restrictions on euthanasia and other forms of killing stray animals, have thus far prevented authorities from killing the animals.

Alexandrov has joined local officials, including Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, and staffers in the Agricultural Ministry in lobbying for a national coordinator to confront the problem, noting that a similar issue has plagued Israeli towns on the Lebanese border over the past two years.