In a makeshift tent city in the southern Gaza Strip teeming with thousands of displaced people, three cats called Simsim, Brownie and Liza are giving rare moments of joy to children who have lost any semblance of normality in their lives. The cats belong to the Harb family, who fled their home in a residential tower in the relatively affluent area of al-Zahra in central Gaza to escape from Israeli air strikes that flattened the building and much of their old neighbourhood. The cats provide a much-needed distraction not only for their owners but for other displaced children who take turns stroking them and picking them up in the dirt alleys in between tents fashioned from tarpaulins and cloth fabrics.