Israel Reduces Forces in Rafah

Leaving behind a swath of destruction, Israeli troops pulled back Friday from most neighborhoods in and around this crowded Palestinian camp, which was the scene of Israel’s biggest military incursion in the Gaza Strip during nearly 44 months of conflict.

Israel said that its operations in southern Gaza were not complete but the army would significantly reduce its presence in the camp and focus on intelligence-gathering. Fighting in and around Rafah this week killed at least 40 Palestinians in three days; no new deaths were reported Friday.

In the camp’s Brazil neighborhood, the site of battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen Thursday, residents awoke to a scene of devastation.

Along one corner of the neighborhood of concrete-block buildings, at least 20 houses appeared to have been plowed over or sheared in half by Israeli tanks and bulldozers. Along one street, the asphalt had been shredded.

The number of demolished buildings was more than double the figure of eight given by Israeli military officials, who said the only structures razed were those used as havens for Palestinian gunmen.

Israel said its offensive in and around Rafah was aimed at rooting out armed militants and looking for tunnels used to smuggle weapons and explosives across the border from Egypt. Israeli officials say their troops have uncovered about 90 such tunnels during the last 3 1/2 years. However, no new tunnels were found during this week’s operations, army spokeswoman Maj. Sharon Feingold said.

A curfew remained in effect in parts of the camp Friday, and some neighborhoods had no power or water service.

Palestinian hospitals complained anew that they were unable to send ambulances into the area.

Some Israeli politicians questioned whether the incursion had brought tangible security benefits or was merely a show of force after Israel had suffered the loss of 13 soldiers in Gaza last week.

“I am not sure entering Rafah was justified,” leftist lawmaker Zehava Galon of the Meretz Party told Israel Radio. “I think it was a chronicle of an incursion foretold, the timing of which was determined by the desire to vent feelings of vengeance for the terrible deaths of soldiers. I never understood what was there for us, in this quagmire.”

In Rafah-area neighborhoods entered by Israeli troops, armored vehicles had left behind mounds of rubble, creating a landscape that resembled the aftermath of an earthquake. Buried among the smashed buildings were crumpled refrigerators, flattened toy scooters and smashed furniture. Perched crookedly atop one heap was a Mercedes-Benz taxi, also crushed.

For some residents, the destruction was all too familiar. Several said they had watched Israeli forces raze their previous houses elsewhere in Rafah during past operations.

Mohammed Omar, a 40-year-old teacher, stood next to the ruins of his house, which he said he had rented after the Israelis demolished his family home during an incursion in October in another area. Once again, he was left without a roof overhead.

“I felt more safe here,” he said, sounding sardonic.

A neighbor, Emad Mansour, picked through the rubble of his house and tossed aside whatever was useless, such as a chunk from a television. He said Israelis destroyed a previous house of his three years ago.

Mansour said he would remain at the site with his wife and five children, probably in a tent.

Not even animals were spared. The trail of destruction in Brazil included a commercial animal park, the only zoo in the Gaza Strip.

Park owner Mohammed Jumaa said Israeli tanks and bulldozers had plowed through the two-acre site and flattened the zoo. Dozens of animals were killed or had escaped, he said.

On Friday, the carcasses of at least a dozen animals, including an ostrich and a peacock, lay strewn about the grounds, which had clearly been churned up by heavy equipment.

Jumaa said some of the more exotic creatures -- including a kangaroo, a jaguar, a fox and exotic birds -- were loose. Others remained but were injured. He showed visitors a deer with two broken legs and a raccoon with its abdomen split open.

He expressed outrage at Israel -- and its closest ally, the United States -- for actions that should not have touched the zoo. He said he opened the zoo five years ago and had bought some of the animals in Israel. Visitors paid the equivalent of about 25 cents for the diversion.

Jumaa at one point held up a shattered turtle in one hand and a lifeless duck in the other, and poured out his rage at President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“This is the democracy of Israel and America!” he shouted. “This is the green light of Bush to Sharon to do anything.”

Jumaa and neighbors spent much of the morning trying to track down the escaped animals, and he tried to nurse wounded creatures back to health.

He fed a young bird, suddenly left alone, with an eyedropper and decried the violence.

“Tanks and birds,” he said. “This is the war.”

Times staff writer Laura King in Jerusalem contributed to this report.