OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Guardian: The Day The Tanks Arrived At Rafah Zoo
Among Ruined Houses, A Haven For Gaza's Children Lies In Rubble

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.

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.

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.