GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A spooked cow
killed a Palestinian man who was trying to slaughter the beast on
Saturday during the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Adha, a Gaza health
official said.
Muslims around the world
slaughter sheep, cows and goats, during the four-day holiday that began
Friday, giving away much of the meat to the poor. The Muslim holiday
commemorates the sacrifice by the Prophet Ibrahim, known to Christians
and Jews as Abraham.
But accidents are common as
people frequently buy animals to slaughter themselves instead of paying
professional butchers. The festive atmosphere at the site of the
slaughtering also tends to make the animals fidgety.
The 52-year-old man who
died was trampled to death, and another three people were seriously
injured when the cow ran wild in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah,
said health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
In all, he said some 150
people were hospitalized in the Palestinian territory with knife wounds
or other injuries caused by animals trying to break away.
Two similar incidents occurred in Pakistan on Saturday.
In the northwestern city of
Peshawar, a bull escaped from untrained butchers and injured three
people, including a 12-year-old boy. Police official Abdul Waheed said
dozens of people chased to the bull and it was recaptured an hour later.
In southern city of
Karachi, a young boy also was lightly wounded by a runaway bull. Owner
Abdul Quddoos said it took two hours to reclaim the animal.
In Gaza, where over a third
of the territory's 1.6 million residents live in poverty and nearly 80
percent rely on food aid, few people ever eat fresh meat regularly,
making the holiday an even bigger treat.
During the holiday's first
day in particular, Gaza's sandy alleyways and main streets are drenched
in blood and entrails. Curious, war-hardened children stick their hands
in the blood and watch in fascinated crowds as their elders butcher the
livestock.
Impoverished families save all year to pay for an animal to slaughter, with many families often pooling their resources.
A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of
fresh beef or lamb costs about $12 in Gaza - more than a day's wage for a
worker, said Ibrahim al-Kidra, an agriculture ministry official. He is
related to the health official.
He said some 3,700 cows and
sheep are imported for consumption on a regular day, while 42,000 are
brought in for the holidays. Most of Gaza's livestock comes through
Israel's commercial crossing with the territory, he added, although
female breeding sheep are still smuggled in.
This represents a change
from years past, when Palestinians hauled most of their sheep, goats and
cows through smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt, a move they
resorted to because of Israel's blockade on the territory imposed when
militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. That blockade has since
loosened.
During the festivities,
residents distribute at least a third of their meat to the poor, and
another third to neighbors, giving the celebration a sense of communal
solidarity.
Public slaughtering is common in Gaza, where professional butcher shops are pricey.
"It's neither healthy nor
good. But it's a tradition," al-Kidra said. "Most Gazans can't believe
they've finally managed to get an animal. They ask themselves: why
should I pay for a butcher when I can slaughter it myself?"
Commentators also were disapproving.
"Killing an animal has standards," Sami Abu Ajwa pleaded on Gaza's al-Quds radio Saturday.
He said under Islamic law
animals shouldn't see each other being killed, they should be soothed,
fed water and slaughtered quickly with a sharp knife to make the
suffering minimal.
Those regulations are widely ignored through the Arab world however.
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