On July 30th, Israeli war planes dropped a precision-guided US made bomb on a building in the Shiite village of Qana killing more than 28 people, including many children. The Israelis say they had pamphleted the region demanding that all civilians leave, and high Israeli officials have openly said that anyone who remains is fair game. Israel's attack on Qana's residents came shortly after rejecting a UN call for a 72-hour humanitarian truce to allow the delivery of relief items to Lebanon. UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland had appealed for a truce to allow casualties to be removed and food and medicine to be sent into the war zone, saying one third of the casualties were children.

Juan Cole writes:
The Israelis appear to be engaged in a concerted campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Shiite towns and villages of southern Lebanon, and are indiscriminately bombing all buildings in the area south of the Litani River. They have chased hundreds of thousands of residents out, and are destroying the property they left behind in a systematic way, rather as they destroy the houses belonging to the family members related to suicide bombers. In other words, the Israelis are engaged in collective punishment on a vast scale. They maintain that rocket launching sites are embedded in these villages. But since Hizbullah keeps firing large numbers of rockets, it does not actually appear to be the case that the Israelis are hitting the rocket launchers. They are demonstrably hitting civilian houses and apartment buildings in a methodical way.

Human Rights Watch has concluded that responsibility for the Qana massacre rests squarely with the Israeli military. It is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians. “Today’s strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children, suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack.”

Qana relives 1996 massacre as air strike kills at least 60 civilians | Dozens of people and at least 20 children killed in Israeli strike on Qana Lebanon | '57 killed' as Israeli air strike hits children | The Qana massacre: Slaughter of innocents in Lebanon | US media alibis for Qana massacre | Robert Fisk: 'How can we stand by and allow this to go on?' | Merhi Rima: The world has to stop this slaughter if a democratic Lebanon is to have a future | Robert Fisk Reports From Lebanon on the Israeli Bombing of Qana | Tel Aviv and the Qana massacre: anatomy of a propaganda campaign

UN And World Governments Enable Israel
With the bodies of slain children and women being dug out from under the rubble of buildings pounded by Israel in the southern village of Qana, Lebanon told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday, July30 , she would be unwelcome in the country without an immediate ceasefire. Thousands of Lebanese protesters stormed the UN building in Beirut in protest over the lack on international action to stop the bloodshed. A protester told the Lebanon Daily Star ""The UN never helped us. It always favors Israel with all its atrocities, and bows down in front of the US and Israeli will. It is a UN for the strong nations, not the small and peaceful countries like ours."

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a statement Sunday deploring the loss of life in Israel's attack in the Lebanese village of Qana, but did not call for an immediate truce despite pleas for such by Secretary General Koffi Annan. Britain, the US and Germany are pressuring Israel to not stop attacking Hezbollah and with both the US and UK having veto power in the Security Council, the UN is powerless to stop the bloodshed.

Lebanon to Condoleezza Rice: Don't Come | Will the South Lebanese Be Told They Can't Return As the Palestinians Were in 1948

Outraged Public Protests Israel's Actions
Despite the view of many world leaders, public outrage around the world is growing. In San Francisco, a protest was held on August 1st in front of the Federal building.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | France: Thousands demonstrate against war in Lebanon and Gaza | Australia: Melbourne rally opposes US-backed Israeli war | Germany: Protests demand immediate halt to Israeli war on Lebanon

Response In Israel
Responding to Qana, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert still maintained there was no need for a ceasefire, but on Sunday, Israel agreed to suspend its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours while civilians were told to leave South Lebanon. Thousands of Lebanese civilians fled the battered border villages in the south Monday, taking advantage of a 24-hour window from Israel to leave the area and allow aid to reach the worst-hit villages. Despite Israel's announcement of a suspension of air strikes, its war planes were again bombing parts of Lebanon on Monday. A senior Israeli government source said Monday morning that despite a 48-hour halt in Israel Air Force activity in Lebanon, "there is no cease-fire." The government source said that the IAF had been told to continue acting against "targets that present a threat to Israel and its troops, including rocket launchers, vehicles transporting ammunition, Hezbollah fighters, weapons stores and Hezbollah assets." The term "Hezbollah assets" refers to people identified with the organization, including those who do not pose an immediate threat. "If they are identified with Hassan Nasrallah, we will hit them," the source said. One Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were wounded when the Israel Air Force targeted a senior Hezbollah figure in south Lebanon early Monday afternoon.

By Tuesday August 1st, Israel had returned to widespread bombing and the Israeli cabinet agreed to widen the country's ground offensive.

Cancelled convoys hamper aid for stranded in southern Lebanon | Lebanon/Israel: 48 hours not enough as war crimes continue | Israeli-Arab objection to fighting puts democracy to the test | Three Hizbullah fighters, three Israeli troops die in clashes | IDF commandos conducting raid deep in Lebanon; 3 soldiers killed in south Lebanon village | Israeli Newspaper Reports That The Army Lied About Qana | Israel: Days of darkness

Iraq Outraged
On Monday July 31st, Iraq's vice president on Monday accused Israel of carrying out "massacres" in Lebanon, the strongest criticism yet of the Israel by a top official of the U.S-backed Iraqi government. Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned that the Muslim world will not forgive countries which stand in the way of a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. "The Islamic world and peace loving people will not excuse sides which hinder a ceasefire. It will have harmful consequences in the whole region," he said in a statement issued late on Sunday.
Sistani Threatens US over Israeli War on Lebanon | Baghdad Burning: Qana Massacre...