QANA, Lebanon - An Israeli airstrike killed at least 56 people, including at
least 34 children, in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross
said.
Israeli paramedics carry an injured man after
he was lightly injured from a Katyusha rocket fired by Hezbollah from
south Lebanon towards the Israeli northern town of Kiryat Shmona.
[AFP] |
It was the deadliest attack in 19 days
of fighting. Lebanese security officials put the toll at 57 dead. Security
officials said the toll rose dramatically after 18 people from two families were
found in a single room of the building, where dozens of people had been taking
refuge from the fighting.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon in a setback
for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.
Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit
after Israel's missile strike on 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 destroyed several homes in the village of Qana 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
defense 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
in on the ground floor of a three-story building, believing they would be safe
from bombings.
"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling
away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. "May
God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," he said.
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 cease-fire 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 ¡ª not the
quick truce favored by most world leaders.
Saniora said Lebanon would be open only to an immediate cease-fire.
"There is no place at this sad moment for any discussions other than an
immediate and unconditional cease-fire 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
cease-fire until it achieved its goal of decimating Hezbollah, whose July 12
capture of two Israel soldiers provoked the fighting.
