Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are mourning an elderly man dubbed ‘the father of kittens’ after he passed away on Tuesday of COVID-19 complications.
Ghassan Yunis Abu Ayman has won hearts everywhere for feeding cats and birds at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem for nearly three decades.
“I see the cats coming towards me from every direction and they walk with me until I reach the grounds of the Dome of the Rock,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview in 2016.
Ghassan became known among Jerusalemites as Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Abu Hurairah, Arabic for ‘the father of kittens’, a nickname first attributed to Islam’s prophet Muhammad’s companion Abd Al-Rahman Ibn Sakhr who was known for his fondness and care for cats.
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