Owl, porcupine and falcon, injured amid war, get medical care

When a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip hit a building in the central city of Rishon Lezion on Thursday, three people were hurt by broken glass and shrapnel — along with a porcupine.

The animal was found by the Environmental Protection Ministry’s green police in a ditch a few meters from the rocket’s exploded remains.

Dr. Tomer Nisimian, chief veterinarian at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, was called in and discovered that the porcupine had sustained cuts and a broken leg.

He took it to the city veterinarian’s clinic, where he treated it and gave it fluids, antibiotics, and painkillers, before transferring the animal to the wildlife hospital run by the INPA and the safari in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.

In Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which saw Hamas terrorists visiting some of the worst brutality on Israelis after invading Israel from Gaza, a soldier from a Nahal infantry brigade reconnaissance unit spotted an owl that was unable to fly and realized it had an injured wing.

Yotam Hefer was able to put the bird into a cardboard box, with holes, until experts from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority could retrieve it and take it to the Ramat Gan Safari.

Soldier Yotam Hefer with the owl he rescued in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Gaza border, before it was transferred for treatment, October 18, 2023. (Rony Elias Ofri)

Meanwhile soldier Gal Stadnikov, serving in the Gaza border area of Kerem Shalom, notified the Israel Nature and Parks Authority about an injured red-footed falcon.

Soldier Gal Stadnikov with the injured red-footed falcon he rescued in the area of Kerem Shalom, close to the Gaza border, on October 26, 2023. (Rony Elias Ofri)

The bird was brought to the wild animal hospital in Ramat Gan via the INPA’s nationwide volunteer group, Hibulance (the name combines the Hebrew words for animal and ambulance), which helps to transport injured wild animals for treatment as quickly as possible.

All sightings of wounded wild animals should be reported to the nature authority’s hotline at *3639.