(5 Sep 2004)
1. Truck loaded with animal cages arriving at checkpoint
2. Various of truck going through checkpoint
3. Israeli and Palestinian veterinarians hugging
4. Cages on truck
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Levinson, Israeli Veterinarian:
"I believe it will improve on a personal base, it will improve on connections between here and the Safari Park. I don't believe it will change some things in the whole situation because for that we need the politicians to sit together and talk."
6. Levinson and Sami Khader talking
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Sami Khader, Palestinian Veterinarian:
"There is not another place we can go. Even in the road, it is dangerous when the intifada started. The last six months have been quiet. It has been very dangerous for the children to play in the streets. It is safer here. Maybe the Israeli military not enter into the zoo."
8. Animal in cage
9. Various of zebras and buck coming out of cage
10. Various of lions waking up from aesthetic drugs
11. Wide of Qalqiliya zoo
12. Cars outside
STORYLINE:
An Israeli safari park on Sunday sent lions, zebras and desert goats to a Palestinian zoo on the West Bank town - a rare gesture of cooperation after four years of bloody conflict.
The animals succesfully travelled a path that many Israelis and Palestinians cannot - the army prohibits Israelis from entering Palestinian areas, where they could be attacked, and most Palestinians are not allowed to enter Israel for fear they could be attackers.
The gift will help replace several animals killed at the Qalqiliya Zoo in Israeli army raids, including three zebras that succumbed to tear gas during a demonstration in 2002 at a neighbouring high school.
The animals were moved on Sunday in a special trip from the Ramat Gan Safari, along 20 kilometres (12 miles) of checkpoints and one-time flashpoints of violence to the zoo that was closed until six months ago.
Qalqiliya is next to the line between Israel and the West Bank.
The Qalqiliya zoo had been closed for much of the bloodshed because of Israeli closures, military raids and frequent clashes.
Despite the violence, the Israeli and Palestinian vets have maintained contact throughout the conflict.
Once Sami Khader, the veterinarian at the Palestinian zoo, found three dead zebras, one pregnant, from tear gas inhalation from a violent demonstration.
Another time he found a giraffe that had hit its head on an iron bar, apparently spooked by gunfire the night before.
In the past six months, with a reduction in Palestinian attacks, Israel has eased travel restrictions, permitting Palestinians from outside the town to visit the zoo with 170 animals.
Khader hopes the three lions, two zebras and three desert goats - called ibexes - will not suffer the same trouble an ostrich delivered from Israel had to endure five months ago.
When the Israelis reached the Qalqiliya checkpoint with the bird, the army refused to let them through, he said.
The Palestinian zoo keepers had to back their truck up close to the checkpoint to receive the ostrich in a back-to-back procedure usually reserved for cargo transfers across roadblocks.
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