When they began demolishing the houses there was no way to warn the bulldozer driver we were there.

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday May 21, 2004 14:04 by Rafah Kid

"My parents live in the house next door. We called them to make a hole in the wall [to] escape. They brought hammers and they made the hole.

"First of all I helped my children escape and then I carried the old woman through the hole. Then they destroyed my parents' house and we had to run to another, bigger house nearby."

According to Reuters five minutes ago the IDF is pulling out of Rafah. This now confirmed on BBC and from people in Rafah. Israeli military sources said that the withdrawal of forces was merely a "redeployment". There is no way that the army's operation is complete, far from it. If this is true that they are leaving then they must have been badly stung by the criticism or have realised that they completely screwed the whole thing up. Or both. You can't claim to be shooting only gunmen say you are not demolishing houses when you have journalists from all over the world reporting it. When the U.S. abstains from a security resolution against Israel then you know its army must have done something really really bad. According to the Reuters piece Palestinians said most of the Israeli tanks had left the Tel Al Sultan neighborhoodand and others were pulling out of Al Barazil. As the tanks trundled out hundreds of residents rushed into the streets to inspect the damage but Israeli forces opened fire and leaders urged people to remain indoors [a local doctor said].

Yesterday has to be remembered as the day when some visitors (we had nearly 4000! In a day!) to this site finally found the comment button and the day that even the ostriches in Rafah became homeless. Reuters picked up on the story from yesterday and stated that the IDF denied destroying the zoo and that the animals had just 'escaped' somehow. It's impossible to confirm one way or another at the moment but the animals are definitely gone. We know all about the ostriches but have no confirmed sightings of the monkey or the pony painted with black stripes to make it look like a zebra. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. It's notable that the army denied destroying the zoo as they also denied destroying any houses in Al Barazil. In a Guardian article today an army spokesman denied there had been any demolition: "Since the beginning of the activity in the Brazil neighbourhood, Israeli forces did not demolish any structures." The same article features a number of interviews with residents who had their houses demolished, some while they were still in the houses hiding from the fighting.