Israel air strike kills 54 civilians

Reuters | July 30 2006

An Israeli air strike killed 54 civilians, including 37 children, on Sunday, prompting Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut and fuelling world pressure for a ceasefire.

The raid on the southern village of Qana was the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah. Rescue workers dug through the rubble with their hands for hours, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.

The U.N. Security Council met for an emergency session to discuss Lebanon at the request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan said he hoped council members would realize "how dangerous the situation is and how it can't escalate and get out of hand and the urgency for them to act."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" at the bombing, but vowed the war against Hizbollah would go on. He told Rice the army needed another 10 to 14 days to press its offensive, a spokesman at his office said.

As anger convulsed Lebanon and the Arab world, several thousand protesters chanted "Death to Israel, Death to America" outside the United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut and some smashed their way into the building.

Rice, who was in Israel, said she was saddened by the Qana air raid, but stopped well short of calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Her mediation drive in tatters, Rice will leave for Washington on Monday to work on a U.N. resolution that could achieve what the White House called a "sustainable" ceasefire.

It also said the Qana raid showed the critical need for Israel to take "the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not hold negotiations before a ceasefire, scuppering Rice's visit. Rice later said she had called off her planned trip to Beirut.

Siniora, often at odds with Hizbollah, thanked its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and "all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon".

Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths at Israeli hands. In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at the base of U.N. peacekeepers in Qana during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign.

International outrage over that attack helped force Israel to end its 17-day campaign that killed more than 200 Lebanese.

SLAIN IN THEIR SLEEP

Police said Qana, about 11 km (seven miles) from the border with Israel, was bombed at 1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT on Saturday). The raid flattened a three-storey building where about 63 displaced people were in the basement. Many were killed as they slept.

"Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and defenseless women?" asked one bereaved man, Mohamed Samai.

The bodies were wrapped tightly in plastic sheets and assembled under an awning. Flowers were placed on the corpses.

Israel said it was unaware civilians were in the building and accused Hizbollah of firing rockets from Qana.

Hizbollah vowed to retaliate. "This horrific massacre will not go without a response," it said. The governing Palestinian movement Hamas also pledged to hit back with attacks on Israel.

About 115 rockets hit Israel on Sunday, wounding six people, police said. At least three slammed into the city of Haifa.

Another Israeli air strike killed five civilians, including two children, in their house in the southern village of Yaroun.

Rice said it was "time to get to a ceasefire", but insisted this required changing the status quo before the war, which erupted after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The United States says the priority is to remove the threat posed to Israel by Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria.

At least 545 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.

Many Arab and European leaders condemned the Qana bombing -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described it as state terrorism -- and called for an immediate ceasefire. An exception was Britain, which continued to back the U.S. line.

Siniora demanded an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and an international investigation into "Israeli massacres".

SCENES OF HORROR

In Qana, rescue workers lay a girl's body on the ground and ran to search for more. They heaved hunks of concrete off a dead child crushed underneath. The rigid corpse of a young boy, his bloody face disfigured, lay near a pulverized building.

Hours later, rescuers were still clambering over rubble using their hands to extract corpses. Two mechanical diggers, one provided by U.N. peacekeepers, eventually joined the effort.

Israeli troops pushed into southeast Lebanon on Sunday and battled Hizbollah fighters after crossing the border overnight.

A spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers said Israeli forces were near the villages of Kfar Kila, Taibe and Deir Mimas.

The Israeli army said four soldiers had been wounded and five Hizbollah guerrillas killed. Hizbollah said it had lost three fighters, but did not say where or when they had died.

(Additional reporting by Beirut and Jerusalem bureaux)

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