Qatari men herd camels in a desert area on the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing between Saudi Arabia and Qatar on June 21, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / KARIM JAAFAR)
DOHA, Qatar — Around 12,000 camels and sheep have become the latest victims of the Gulf diplomatic crisis, being forced to trek back to Qatar from Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported.
Qatar has so far provided temporary shelter, as well as water and fodder, to 7,000 camels and 5,000 sheep returning from the kingdom, said the Qatari newspaper, The Peninsula, on Tuesday.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia and its allies cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar and gave its citizens a two-week deadline to leave the kingdom.
This has forced Qatari farmers with livestock in Saudi Arabia to move their animals back to the emirate, The Peninsula said.
Qatari men herd camels in a desert area on the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing between Saudi Arabia and Qatar on June 21, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / KARIM JAAFAR)
Qatar is home to around 22,000 racing camels, but the animals are also farmed for meat and milk.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have accused Qatar of supporting extremism, charges Doha firmly denies.
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
