Post by Papa C. on Aug 1, 2006 9:53:20 GMT
Israeli missile strike in Lebanon kills 57, overall toll exceeds 500
QANA, Lebanon (AP) - An Israeli airstrike flattened a three-storey building in southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing at least 57 people, 34 of them children.
Lebanese security officials said the toll rose dramatically after an initial report of 50 dead after 18 people from two families were found in a single room of the building.
The Lebanese Red Cross said the total death count from the 19-day Israeli military campaign is now more than 500.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon, a setback for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.
Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit after the missile strike on the town of Qana.
But Rice said she called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to say she would postpone the trip, and that she had work to do in Jerusalem to end the fighting.
The missiles also destroyed several homes in the village as people were sleeping.
Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.
"One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields," said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. "The Israeli defence forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone."
Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.
Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge on the ground floor of the building, believing they would be safe from bombings.
"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man digging away at the rubble in a search for bodies - his brown pants covered in dust.
"May God have mercy on the children," he said. "They came here to escape the fighting.
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees."
Rice said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life" in Israel's attack. But she did not call for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militias.
"We all recognize this kind of warfare is extremely difficult," Rice said, noting it comes in areas where civilians live. "It unfortunately has awful consequences sometimes."
"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible," she added.
The United States and Israel are pressing for a settlement that addresses enduring issues between Lebanon and Israel and disables Hezbollah - not the quick truce favoured by most world leaders.
Saniora said Lebanon would be open only to an immediate ceasefire.
"There is no place at this sad moment for any discussions other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as international investigation of the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," he told reporters Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not rush into a ceasefire until it achieved its goal of decimating Hezbollah, whose July 12 capture of two Israel soldiers provoked the fighting.
More than 5,000 people protested in central Beirut, denouncing Israel and the United States, some chanting, "Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv." A few broke car windows and tried briefly to break into the main UN building until political leaders called for a halt to damage.
Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr questioned Israel's claim that Hezbollah fired rockets from the village.
"What do you expect Israel to say?" he told Al-Jazeera television. "Will it say that it killed 40 children and women?"
Qana, in the hills east of the southern port city of Tyre, has a bloody history. In 1996, Israeli artillery killed more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge at a UN base in the village. That attack sparked an international outcry that helped end an Israeli offensive.
The attack drew swift condemnation from several world leaders.
French President Jacques Chirac's office said "France condemns this unjustifiable action, which shows more than ever the need to move toward an immediate ceasefire, without which other such dramas can only be repeated."
Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned "the ugly crime perpetrated by Israeli forces in Qana," calling it "a blatant violation of the law and all international conventions."
Fighting also broke out Sunday between guerrillas and Israeli soldiers in a zone called the Taibeh Project area, about three kilometres inside Lebanon.
The Israeli army said one soldier was moderately wounded. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV claimed two Israeli soldiers were killed.
Heavy artillery also rained down on the villages of Yuhmor and Arnoun, close to Taibeh. In northern Israel, rockets fell on Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and an area close to Maalot, the army said.
Israel has said it would launch a series of limited ground incursions into Lebanon to push back guerrillas, rather than carry out a full-fledged invasion. Israeli troops pulled back Saturday from the town of Bint Jbail, suggesting the thrust, launched a week ago, had halted.
But Lebanese officials reported a massing of troops and 12 tanks near the Israeli town of Metulla further to the northeast, on the tip of the Galilee Panhandle near the Golan Heights, suggesting another incursion could begin soon.
QANA, Lebanon (AP) - An Israeli airstrike flattened a three-storey building in southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing at least 57 people, 34 of them children.
Lebanese security officials said the toll rose dramatically after an initial report of 50 dead after 18 people from two families were found in a single room of the building.
The Lebanese Red Cross said the total death count from the 19-day Israeli military campaign is now more than 500.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon, a setback for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.
Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit after the missile strike on the town of Qana.
But Rice said she called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to say she would postpone the trip, and that she had work to do in Jerusalem to end the fighting.
The missiles also destroyed several homes in the village as people were sleeping.
Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.
"One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields," said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. "The Israeli defence forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone."
Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.
Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge on the ground floor of the building, believing they would be safe from bombings.
"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man digging away at the rubble in a search for bodies - his brown pants covered in dust.
"May God have mercy on the children," he said. "They came here to escape the fighting.
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees."
Rice said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life" in Israel's attack. But she did not call for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militias.
"We all recognize this kind of warfare is extremely difficult," Rice said, noting it comes in areas where civilians live. "It unfortunately has awful consequences sometimes."
"We want a ceasefire as soon as possible," she added.
The United States and Israel are pressing for a settlement that addresses enduring issues between Lebanon and Israel and disables Hezbollah - not the quick truce favoured by most world leaders.
Saniora said Lebanon would be open only to an immediate ceasefire.
"There is no place at this sad moment for any discussions other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, as well as international investigation of the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," he told reporters Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not rush into a ceasefire until it achieved its goal of decimating Hezbollah, whose July 12 capture of two Israel soldiers provoked the fighting.
More than 5,000 people protested in central Beirut, denouncing Israel and the United States, some chanting, "Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv." A few broke car windows and tried briefly to break into the main UN building until political leaders called for a halt to damage.
Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr questioned Israel's claim that Hezbollah fired rockets from the village.
"What do you expect Israel to say?" he told Al-Jazeera television. "Will it say that it killed 40 children and women?"
Qana, in the hills east of the southern port city of Tyre, has a bloody history. In 1996, Israeli artillery killed more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge at a UN base in the village. That attack sparked an international outcry that helped end an Israeli offensive.
The attack drew swift condemnation from several world leaders.
French President Jacques Chirac's office said "France condemns this unjustifiable action, which shows more than ever the need to move toward an immediate ceasefire, without which other such dramas can only be repeated."
Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned "the ugly crime perpetrated by Israeli forces in Qana," calling it "a blatant violation of the law and all international conventions."
Fighting also broke out Sunday between guerrillas and Israeli soldiers in a zone called the Taibeh Project area, about three kilometres inside Lebanon.
The Israeli army said one soldier was moderately wounded. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV claimed two Israeli soldiers were killed.
Heavy artillery also rained down on the villages of Yuhmor and Arnoun, close to Taibeh. In northern Israel, rockets fell on Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and an area close to Maalot, the army said.
Israel has said it would launch a series of limited ground incursions into Lebanon to push back guerrillas, rather than carry out a full-fledged invasion. Israeli troops pulled back Saturday from the town of Bint Jbail, suggesting the thrust, launched a week ago, had halted.
But Lebanese officials reported a massing of troops and 12 tanks near the Israeli town of Metulla further to the northeast, on the tip of the Galilee Panhandle near the Golan Heights, suggesting another incursion could begin soon.
