Palestinian refugees in Syria hospitalised after eating a cat

A Palestinian family of seven who live in the Yarmouk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus have suffered food poisoning after they were forced by hunger to eat a cat. The Syrian Revolution General Commission stated that the family members, including children, have been hospitalised within the camp.

The spokesman for the Local Coordination Committee in Yarmouk, Musaab Abu Qatada, said that the camp is witnessing a “humanitarian tragedy”. He noted that prices of food items have increased tenfold because regime forces are preventing the flow of humanitarian aid.

A number of Syrian scholars have issued a fatwa permitting refugees to eat cats and dogs on the grounds of necessity, which makes normally prohibited food items permissible. The legal opinion was issued against the backdrop of the death of children and the elderly due to hunger.

A representative of the Palestinian refugees’ media centre, Alaa Al-Barghouti, pointed out that the siege imposed on Yarmouk by the Syrian regime for the past 184 days has led to 44 refugees starving to death. Most of the camp’s 20,000 inhabitants are Palestinians who were driven from their homeland by Israel.