Jaguar threat in Rafah
2004-05-22 12:22
Rafah, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces may have wound down their offensive in Rafah but residents have been warned about a new deadly danger - from seven jaguars which escaped after troops razed the Gaza Strip's only zoo.
The jaguars, which live off a diet of raw meat, were among scores of animals that escaped from the zoo in Rafah's Jenaina neighbourhood after three bulldozers smashed their way into the grounds as part of an operation to find tunnels allegedly used by Palestinian militants to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.
"They are very, very dangerous. They can easily kill young children," warned the zoo's owner and manager Ahmed Jamal.
Jamal said that a group of foxes, wolves and raccoons were also on the loose but feared that, like the jaguars, their chances of surviving in the wild were slim. The animals were left free to roam after their cages were busted open and the walls of the zoo demolished.
The zoo had been one of the few sources of pleasure for the residents of poverty-stricken Rafah. Although the town lies just a few couple kilometres from the sea, access to the coast is blocked by a cluster of Jewish settlements.
"We can't go to the seaside, so we have nowhere else to go. I used to come here every week," said 14-year-old Waleed Abu Suleiman.
Waleed said he used to spend hours looking at the hundreds of exotic birds that had been assembled in the menagerie, which covered less than 2.47 acres of land, since it opened five years ago.
All but a few dozen have either now flown the roost or been killed, with the corpses of yellow-feathered lovebirds littering the ground. Dogs could be seen pecking at the remains of parrots on a tour of the zoo on Friday.
As he fished out two more dead cockatiels from what was once a caged pound, Jamal estimated that he had lost around $300 000 worth of birdlife.
"I still don't have the words to express how I feel," he said.
"Why did they come here? It's impossible to rebuild this place. We just don't have any money.
"We were going to get some animals from South Africa in the summer, including some giraffes, but of course they can't come now."
He will now concentrate on finding homes for the surviving animals, including a number of snakes whose glass tanks emerged unscathed.
Dozens of buildings in Rafah have been razed since the start on Tuesday of a deadly Israeli raid aimed at rounding up wanted Palestinian militants and stamping out cross-border weapons smuggling.
A number of residents say that they lost livestock such as goats and chickens in the course of "Operation Rainbow" when bulldozers ploughed into their homes.
More than 40 people have been killed since the start of the operation, which drew widespread international condemnation and censure from the UN security council.