GAZA CITY: Two lion cubs have become star members of a family living in a Gaza refugee camp as a result of the weak economy in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
A cash-starved zoo in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, sold the cubs to Saadi Jamal, a Palestinian Authority security employee who has taken them home — to the delight of his four children and their neighbors.
For the past 10 weeks, “they’ve been living in the house like members of the family,” he told AFP. The children in the three-room apartment and their local friends “play all day long with the cubs.”
But this extended family comes at a price.
They gobble up half a kilo of meat a day, a tall order in Israeli-blockaded Gaza where prices have soared since a devastating war last July-August against the Jewish state.
“Once they turn five months,” Jamal plans to make some money by leasing the cubs out to lunar parks, seaside resorts and restaurants.
Jamal has even received a $9,000 (8,400 euros) offer to buy them, but he won’t say how much he paid the zoo.
Lion cubs turn into stars of Gaza family
Lion cubs turn into stars of Gaza family
Musk’s X to open source new algorithm in seven days
Elon Musk said on Saturday that social media platform X will open its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, to the public in seven days.
“This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” he said in his X post.
Earlier this week, the European Commission decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, prolonging it to the end of 2026, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday.
In July 2025, Paris prosecutors investigated the social media platform for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction, which Musk’s X called a “politically-motivated criminal investigation” that threatens its users’ free speech.
