Palestinians Say Israeli Soldiers Slaughtered Helpless Animals In Gaza Zoo

The world has remained cool over the 1,400 Christian and Muslim men, women and children killed by Israel during its recent invasion of Gaza—but will they care about the innocent caged animals slaughtered by Israeli soldiers at the little zoo in Gaza?

(GAZA CITY) - Video makes for hard evidence. That is a fact, and police and military groups that overstep the boundaries of decency are increasingly debuting on the worldwide screen through venues like YouTube, much to the chagrin of those who used to get away with much, much more.

The charges this time are against the Israel Defense Force and regard caged animals at the Gaza Zoo. Reporters with American Free Press say the acts were needless.

"Israeli soldiers rampaged through the little zoo and shot as many innocent caged animals at point blank range as they could."

The group suggests that if this wasn't Israel, we would be talking about a worldwide scandal that would make the front page cut of every daily paper and headline every evening newscast.

Those who defend the act suggest that the zoo and its animals were “collateral damage” of war that were unintended. But Zookeeper Emad Jamil Qasim sharply disagrees.

He says the soldiers of this religious state closely allied with the United States, entered the zoo and started shooting. Targets included monkeys in their cages.

"A mother monkey tried to hide with her baby in a clay pot, but the Israelis shot the pot to pieces and killed them," American Free Press stated in a news release.

Emad Qasim talks about a pregnant camel that was one of the first animals killed. It was actually struck with a small missile according to reports. It is still lying in its cage in the video, and its face betrays the pain of its death from IDF military weapons, likely purchased with U.S. taxpayer funds.

Soldiers reportedly shot at lions in another cage, but they managed to get free and run for safety. The lions as it turns out, hid in one of the zoo offices.

It is reported that the Israelis spared the zoo's foxes, but people at the Gaza Zoo say they later turned on each other for food.

That is reportedly tied to the fact that the IDF would not allow Qasim to get to them in time to feed them.

"The hysterical foxes mauled each other to death in a frenzied act of cannibalism," he said.

Israel has asserted many times in the past that their military is the "most moral" armed force of any nation on the planet.

But people on the ground there say the real nature of Israeli army’s is not so ideal, and the news of the shocking attack on the Gaza Zoo is one more piece of evidence that wears the "moral army" story down.

This story originally appeared in the January 25th issue of Gulf News, published in Abu Dhabi, and has been repeated on websites on the Internet.

Emad Qasim in Gaza says the Israelis apparently weren’t content with butchering the animals, and reports that the IDF is responsible for defacing the walls of the main building, and also for vandalizing a bathroom.

When asked to speculate as to why the Israelis targeted the zoo, he said, "I don’t know. You have to go and ask the Israelis. This is a place where people come to enjoy themselves. It’s not a place of politics."

"There was not a single person in this zoo. Just the animals. We all fled before they came. What purpose does it serve to walk around shooting animals and destroying the place?"

The zoo had in recent years, become a popular place for the Christian and Muslim children of Gaza.

"There was nowhere else for people to go. The Israelis destroyed the zoo and God’s four-legged creatures therein."

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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Brett August 31, 2009 1:12 pm (Pacific time)

They will never be held accountable until the world stand up and physicaly stops them. The israeli's are not only animals, they are becoming the lowest of life forms on this earth, and also have becaome the greatest threat to peace on this earth since hitler. Life can't keep going on like this, They must be stopped, Our greedy government can't turn a blind eye forever. I would like to see our politicians pay for there treachery for back israel as long as long as they've been. Those poor animals. I wish those lions ate a couple of IDF's before taken off. Israel must seriously pay for MANY...MANY..MAny years of suffering they have caused.

Disgusted June 18, 2009 12:30 pm (Pacific time)

That is so wrong, and they should be held accountable for their actions. Why are the major news channels not reporting this?

Editor: Just follow the money trail, it leads to Israel

Joe W June 17, 2009 3:38 pm (Pacific time)

The most important word in Daniel's comment is "if." Unlike Mike, I don't take this story as fact considering the lack of seeing the evidence and an Gaza resident that has a interest in casting Isreal in the worst light. I don't deny the charges but I don't believe them without seeing credible evidence. As of now, the only thing I can say with confidence is someone killed caged animals and need to be found and prosecuted regardless of who they are.

Editor: So if it was the other way around, and the Israeli's said on western TV that the HAMAS or some other group like that killed the animals, would you stil have the same questions or would you just assume it is true since the Israeli's said it? I'm probably not giving you enough credit, but it irks me that everyone is still so quick to assume the Israeli's aren't capable of such things. I think the video, recorded on January 25th, is entirely true and they probably didn't even assume that people like yourself would automatically doubt it. You think somebody else did this act at the exact time that the Israeli's invaded Gaza? I think we all know better than that. Thanks for your comment.

Mike H. June 16, 2009 6:49 pm (Pacific time)

Sickening. Such a heartless, violent act. Most moral armed force of any nation on the planet huh? I wonder what their 'morals' are. Perhaps not comparable to the rest of the planet's, obviously.

Daniel Johnson June 16, 2009 4:11 pm (Pacific time)

I just googled "Gaza zoo" and this was the only story that came up. A second story appeared but had nothing to do with it, just words in common. What is increasingly bothering me about the Israelis is not so much that they are appearing to be bad people, but they appear to be getting away with so much. There seems to be a double standard in the world when it comes to Israel.
If this story is true, it is disgusting to an animal lover like myself.

Editor: Daniel, I did hear of this when it happened and there were just so many things taking place at once that it fell to the side until now. I love animals also but I don't think about it that much, which is why I was surprised to be so personally affected by this. I just appreciate the fact that groups track us down and make sure Salem-News.com is aware.

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