- AL-BRAZIL, Rafah -- Ask to
be directed to the latest wave of Israeli destruction in Rafah's al-Brazil
neighbourhood and many fingers point towards the zoo.
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- Amid the rubble of dozens of homes that the Israeli army
continued yesterday to deny demolishing, the wrecking of the tiny, but
only, zoo in the Gaza Strip took on potent symbolism for many of the newly
homeless.
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- The butchered ostrich, the petrified kangaroo cowering
in a basement corner, the tortoises crushed under the tank treads - all
were held up as evidence of the pitiless nature of the Israeli occupation.
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- "People are more important than animals," said
the zoo's co-owner Mohammed Ahmed Juma, whose house was also demolished.
"But the zoo is the only place in Rafah that children could escape
the tense atmosphere. There were slides and games for children. We had
a small swimming pool. I know it's hard to believe, looking at it now,
but it was beautiful. Why would they destroy that? Because they want to
destroy everything about us."
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- The systematic demolition of homes was revealed yesterday
as Israeli forces partially pulled out of al-Brazil on the fifth day of
an operation officially to hunt down Palestinian fighters and weapons-smuggling
tunnels running under the border from Egypt.
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- More than 40 people have been killed in the assault,
about a third of them civilians, besides targets of the operation such
as the Hamas military commander in al-Brazil who was hit by a missile.
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- About 45 buildings were razed by the army in the area
it pulled back from yesterday, some of them two or three storeys high and
housing several families.
-
- The military says the houses were wrecked by Palestinian
bombs planted to attack Israeli forces, or accidentally by tanks turning
in the street. But Palestinians consistently gave similar accounts of armoured
bulldozers arriving at the door and giving the residents just minutes to
get out, at best.
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- "The bulldozer started hitting the house,"
said Juma Abu Hammad sitting on the remains of his eight-bed-roomed home
that housed two families with 15 children. "I grabbed the children.
We did not take a single thing with us, even very important documents like
birth certificates. I was just worried about the lives of the children."
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- Aziza Monsour, 54, pointed to the remains of a yellow
taxi tossed by a bulldozer on the top of what remained of a neighbouring
house. "That taxi was our only living," she said. "My husband
drove it. It provided for everyone who lived in this house."
-
- But there is no house any more.
-
- "The blade of the bulldozer hit the room we were
sitting in," said Mrs Monsour. "I waved my white headscarf at
the soldiers as we pleaded with them to let us go. We were running between
the tanks and the shooting and counting the children as we went to make
sure they were all still with us. This is revenge, absolute revenge, for
the seven Israeli soldiers killed in Rafah."
-
- None of the homes left destroyed yesterday is close to
the "Philadelphi road" security strip under Israeli control along
the Egyptian border, and is therefore un-likely to have been used to dig
weapons-smuggling tunnels.
-
- It is unclear whether other homes, next to the border,
have also been demolished as Israeli forces retain control of that part
of al-Brazil.
-
- The army said that after five days of searching, "the
beginnings of a tunnel" had been found, although not in the area of
the mass demolitions. The military also denied it had deliberately destroyed
homes.
-
- "We did not destroy any houses in al-Brazil,"
said a spokeswoman who identified herself as Eli. "There was damage
to buildings from fighting. The terrorists activate explosive devices under
the road or next to the buildings. These bombs that destroy tanks can easily
destroy a house."
-
- But, aside from the accounts of Palestinians who fled
their homes, the destruction is not consistent with individual explosions.
Off al-Imam road, nearly 20 houses in a row were wrecked. There was no
sign of a massive explosion, such as a crater in the road or damage to
houses standing next to the wrecked buildings.
-
- Opposite, bulldozers had torn up an olive grove belonging
to a well-known family in the area, the Qishtas.
-
- The demolitions in al-Brazil are the third time the Israeli
army has misrepresented its actions in Rafah this week.
-
- On Tuesday the military dismissed accusations that an
Israeli sniper shot two children in the head, claiming they were blown
up by a Palestinian bomb. But the bodies of both children were later shown
to each have only a single bullet wound to the head.
-
- On Wednesday the army said armed men made up the majority
of 10 people killed when an Israeli tank fired into a peaceful demonstration.
In fact half of the victims were children and television footage showed
no weapons among the demonstrators.
-
- The army also initially denied that soldiers deliberately
wrecked the zoo that provided Rafah's children with virtually their only
contact with live animals, even ordinary ones such as squirrels, goats
and tortoises.
-
- Among the zoo's more popular exhibits were kangaroos,
monkeys and ostriches, which children could sit on.
-
- The destruction was comprehensive. The fountain and its
tiles were a jumble of rubble in one corner. There was no sign of the swimming
pool.
-
- One of the ostriches lay half buried in the rubble. Guinea
fowl and ducks were laid out in a row. Goats and a deer struggled with
broken legs.
-
- Some of the animals were still on the loose, if not buried
under the debris. One of the two kangaroos was missing; the other was cowering
in the basement. A snake and three monkeys were unaccounted for. Mr Juma
accused Israeli soldiers of stealing valuable African parrots.
-
- The army's explanation evolved through the day. At first
it said it had not destroyed the zoo, then it said a tank may have accidentally
reversed into it.
-
- By the end of yesterday, the military said its soldiers
had been forced to drive through the zoo because an alternative route was
booby-trapped by Palestinian explosives.
-
- Finally a spokesman said the soldiers had released the
animals from their cages in a compassionate gesture to prevent them being
harmed.
-
- * Israeli forensic experts are examining human remains
handed over by a Lebanese group to see whether they are those of the missing
airman Ron Arad, who bailed out over Lebanon 18 years ago, Israel Radio
said. It did not identify the group which handed over the remains.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1222307,00.html
-
-
- Comment
- From Karma Blank
- 5-24-4
-
- Jeff
-
- When I read about a children's zoo being demolished &
goddamn kangaroos cowering in fear, hiding out in the ruins of a basement
or tortoises being crushed beneath the treads of a satanic death machine
I want to send my fist through this computer's monitor. I want to drive
my fuel efficient car off a cliff or into a 500 year old oak tree. I want
to bash my skull against a brick wall screaming "What the fuck is
wrong with us?!"
-
- I don't know how much more of this "progress"
I can stand, Jeff. I want to cry every time I turn on the television, pick
up a newspaper, or click on a highlighted headline. Let's all take John
Kaminski's advice & start fresh. I feel we're running out of time.
-
- Lost in the Wild Wild Midwest
|
