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'57 killed' as Israeli air strike hits children
Dozens of children were feared dead today after Israeli missiles struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. Survivors said that more than 50 adults and children had died.
The Israeli army said missiles had been fired from the area before the 1am air strike in which a three-story building took a direct hit.
Rescuers aided by villagers were digging by hand to look for casualties.
The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children's bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said.
"We want this to stop," shouted villager Mohammed Ismail. " 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."
The Israeli army said rockets had been launched repeatedly from the area on Israel. "We were attacking launchers that were firing missiles," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. He said the army dropped leaflets several days ago telling civilians to leave Qana.
The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said that the village of Qana was used as a Hizbollah base for launching hundreds of rockets at Israel.
"From the village and its surroundings, hundreds of Katyusha (rockets) have been fired at Israel, toward Kiryat Shemona and Afula," he said during Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, according to a participant. "The army did not get an order to strike at Lebanese civilians. In Kfar Qana, hundreds of Katyushas are hidden."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1204845.ece
Rescuers aided by villagers were digging by hand to look for casualties.
The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children's bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said.
"We want this to stop," shouted villager Mohammed Ismail. " 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."
The Israeli army said rockets had been launched repeatedly from the area on Israel. "We were attacking launchers that were firing missiles," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman. He said the army dropped leaflets several days ago telling civilians to leave Qana.
The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said that the village of Qana was used as a Hizbollah base for launching hundreds of rockets at Israel.
"From the village and its surroundings, hundreds of Katyusha (rockets) have been fired at Israel, toward Kiryat Shemona and Afula," he said during Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, according to a participant. "The army did not get an order to strike at Lebanese civilians. In Kfar Qana, hundreds of Katyushas are hidden."
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1204845.ece
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n realms of biblical narrative, some believe it to be the scene of Jesus Christ's first miracle, turning water into wine during the wedding at Cana of Galilee.
In modern times, it was the scene of one of the bloodiest events of the modern Arab-Israeli conflict, the Israeli shelling of a UN base sheltering Lebanese civilians 10 years ago.
International shock at those deaths - more than 100, and another 100 injured - led to huge pressure for a ceasefire deal bringing an end to Israel's last sustained military operation against Hezbollah militants, codenamed Operation Grapes of Wrath.
The Qana Massacre, as it is known in Lebanon, remains a powerful symbol for Lebanese people of what they say is Israel's indiscriminate and disproportionate response to Hezbollah's rocket attacks.
'No accident'
Israel still insists the 1996 shelling was an accident and that its forces had a legitimate militant target - a Hezbollah military unit that had fired mortars and rockets from near the Qana base.
Then, as now, Israel accused Hezbollah of using the civilian population as human shields when they launched their attacks.
However, a UN investigation reported in May 1996 that the deaths at the Qana base were unlikely to have been the result of an accident as claimed by the Israelis.
The UN report cited the repeated use of airburst shells over the small UN compound, which sent down a deadly torrent of shrapnel that caused terrible injuries among the unprotected civilians.
The UN also noted the presence of Israeli helicopters and a drone in the skies over Qana which must have witnessed the bloodbath.
Strategic location
In the current round of Israel's bombardment, Qana has again been in the news - the scene of several incidents, such as the bombing by Israel of two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances and the death of a young Lebanese photojournalist, Layal Nejib, also in an air strike on her car.
Looking at the map, it is not hard to see why Qana is never far from the headlines when Israel bombards southern Lebanon.
It lies at the northern edge of the Lebanon's southern uplands which border Israel and also at the confluence of five strategic roads in the hinterland south-east of the southern city of Tyre.
Qana and the villages surrounding it are a strong pro-Hezbollah area and Israel says it has repeatedly been used to fire rockets over the border about 10km (six miles) to the south.
Israeli officials say leaflets had been dropped in the area warning civilians to leave their homes so it could conduct more anti-Hezbollah operations.
However, it seems clear that, with the number of civilian cars and convoys which have been bombed on the roads heading to Tyre, many residents chose to ignore the Israeli warnings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5228554.stm
Rescue workers and neighbors worked frantically to find survivors among the wreckage of a house, where two large extended families were hiding in a garage. Six small children, their mouths open and full of dirt, were brought out and laid on stretchers.
"I felt as if I was turning around, and the earth was going up, and I was going into the earth," said Mohamed Chaloub, a father of five who was thrown into a doorway and managed to escape. All five of his children, including a 2-year-old child, were killed. His wife, sister and aunt were also killed.
Neighbors said they ran to the house after the first strike, around 1 a.m., and that they heard screams and tried to reach people trapped inside, but the strikes persisted and they could not reach them. In the morning, rescue workers pulled bodies of 22 people out of the rubble, but neighbors said more bodies were inside.
The death toll climbed as rescue workers retrieved more people from the collapsed building, carrying limp bodies away on stretchers and in blankets.
More
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/world/middleeast/30cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1154318400&en=59074a966f18b6b3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Speaking to reporters, Eshel added that Hizbullah rocket launchers were hidden in civilian buildings in the village. He proceeded to show video footage of rocket launchers being driven into the village following launches.
A senior Israeli government official reported Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he needed 10 days to two weeks to finish the offensive in Lebanon.
'So we need to murder everyone - including any civilians - who live there' - Israel
This attack was not a "mistake." Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, today made it clear that the people of Lebanon will be bombed so long as Hezbollah exists. By this twisted logic, the Lebanese people are responsible for their own deaths, including the deaths of their own children, at the hands of Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli military has been supplied with a huge array of weapons by the United States, including the rush order of 5,000 lb. bombs in recent days.
According to the AFP, "rescue workers with only their bare hands clawed through rubble of flattened homes and an underground shelter to find survivors while mothers hugged their dead children in a final hopeless embrace.... Israel, which has received staunch US backing since the conflict began on July 12, unleashed its firepower on Qana after flatly rejecting a UN call for a 72-hour truce to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to Lebanon."