{"id":219833,"date":"2025-10-17T13:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219833\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:17:08","slug":"rare-whale-shark-that-drew-crowds-in-israel-caught-and-killed-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/219833\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare whale shark that drew crowds in Israel caught and killed in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"HJ9HwKCokAgg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/environment\/article\/bybb2me6gg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">A whale shark that captivated Israelis in recent weeks<\/a> after being spotted off the country\u2019s Mediterranean coast appears to have met a grim end in Gaza. Video circulating on social media Thursday showed crowds in Khan Younis pulling the enormous fish ashore and reportedly butchering it for food.<\/p>\n<p>The whale shark\u2014classified as an endangered species and protected under Israeli law\u2014had been seen earlier this month off the coasts of Netanya, Ashdod and Ashkelon. Marine researchers had tracked its movements as it swam north and south along Israel\u2019s shoreline.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/facebook-s.png\" class=\"share-image\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/twitter-s.png\" class=\"share-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d said Adi Barash, CEO of Sharks in Israel, a nonprofit dedicated to shark conservation. \u201cThere\u2019s no ecological impact since it was a solitary individual, but it\u2019s still deeply saddening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea, can grow up to 14 meters (46 feet) long and live more than a century. They feed on plankton and small fish and pose no danger to humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A whale shark that captivated Israelis in recent weeks after being spotted off the country\u2019s Mediterranean coast appears&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-219833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}