Why?

Of all of the scenes coming from the Occupied Territories during Israel's most recent incursion, this is perhaps the most depressing to be seen recently.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - A headless ostrich, dead chickens and a peacock littered the ground at a zoo Friday after Israeli troops raided a Gaza neighbourhood. The zoo's owner said soldiers demolished cages and pens, killing some animals and setting dozens more free.

Associated Press Television News footage showed the mangled body of a goat lying near the twisted wreckage of its former pen as flies swarmed overhead.

Why was this necessary? Were the ostriches secretly smuggling weapons?

Besides the inhumane deaths these animals suffered, wasn't this action inadvisable simply because it increases the Palestinian's hatred of Israel?

Zoo owner Mohammed Jumaa said most of the animals were either dead or had escaped. The zoo is in Tel Sultan, the neighbourhood that was hardest hit in the raid.

"There are no words to describe the pain that I feel right now," said Jumaa. "This is all part of the army's planned destruction of Rafah, its buildings, its people, and even its animals."

Deliberately killing innocent wild animals who don't even know where they are is perhaps the worst thing I've heard of the IDF doing yet.