Anti-Israel Mainstream Media:
QANA, Lebanon (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed at least 40 Lebanese civilians, including 21 children, in the southern village of Qana on Sunday, in the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah.The deadly air strike, whose target was not immediately clear, occurred as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Jerusalem on a mission to persuade Israel and Lebanon to agree on an international force to deploy on the border.
The three-storey building where about 60 displaced civilians were sheltering and several other houses were destroyed in the dawn raid, catching many people asleep, a Reuters witness said.
The witness counted 40 bodies, including those of 21 children. Rescue workers and witnesses said more bodies were still trapped under the rubble.
Lebanese Red Cross workers covered the corpse of one dead child with a blanket. A woman in a red-patterned dress lay crumpled and lifeless in the broken masonry. A leg poked out from the rubble nearby. A child lay dead in the street.
Israel's military said it had warned residents of Qana to leave and said Hizbollah bore responsibility for using it to fire rockets at the Jewish state.
Distraught people in Qana screamed in grief and anger amid the rubble of wrecked buildings as others scrabbled at slabs of concrete with their bare hands to try to reach those still buried in the debris.
Israeli warplanes struck Qana only hours after Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to rocket more cities in central Israel if attacks on Lebanon continued.
Lebanese television stations described the raid on Qana as a massacre. The village is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths at the hands of Israel's military. 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.
Let's give Israeli media the last word, shall we?
(Arutz Sheva) The three-story building in Kafr Kana was hit directly by an IAF bomb at 7:30 AM, collapsing atop the shelter in which many people were sleeping. Neighboring buildings were also heavily damaged. Foreign news crews are on hand, sending scenes of the destruction across the globe.The IDF Spokesman's office says that Hizbullah uses the civilians as "human shields," and many reports have been received attesting to the fact that Hizbullah does not allow the citizens to leave - despite many IDF warnings to do so. Israel also blames the Lebanese Government for not preventing the above situation.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that Kafr Kana and environs are a "center for Katyusha firing on Kiryat Shmonah and Afula... Dozens of Katyushas have been fired from there, and the terrorists hide there after firing the rockets." Olmert emphasized that the residents had often been warned that they must leave the area.
"Israel does not have a policy of killing innocent people," Olmert said, in an obvious contrast with Hizbullah and Hamas.
A senior IDF officer told Voice of Israel Radio, "Hizbullah fires rockets at Kiryat Shmonah and Afula from within Kafr Kana and then runs to hide inside the buildings .... [the IDF] has been bombing Kafr Kana for three days already... Most civilians have left already, and most of those who remain are Hizbullah rocket launching cells. We have bombed ten launchers in the city, and dozens more in the vicinity. Today, we attacked a building towards which the terrorists ran; we would not have done so had we seen civilians there."
Another official said, "The IDF warned the civilians to leave, and it was serious about it. I don't like to see innocent people killed, but if there have to be innocent civilians killed, I would rather they be in southern Lebanon than in Haifa."
The Lebanese Government has informed U.S. Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice that it is not interested in meeting with her for further diplomatic talks, and that it demands an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said during the cabinet meeting Sunday that "we will not blink in the face of Hizbullah and we will not halt the war in spite of the harsh circumstances. This is the right thing to do."According to Olmert, "Hizbullah, like the entire Muslim terror, threatens the western civilization. When we decided to respond we knew that we would have to face difficult situation. We will overcome them."
"I express my deep regret, which is shared by the entire State of Israel and the IDF, over the death of civilians in the village of Qana. There is nothing far away from our thoughts and interests than hurting civilians, and everyone understands this," Olmert said.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz also expressed his regret over the fact that civilians were hurt. "We are operating in a place from where Katyushas are being launched and we conveyed messages to the citizens. Unfortunately, people who gathered in the place, while we were unaware of their presence, were hurt," he said.
"We will continue to fight in a bid to protect the northern residents and bring about calm. The terror organizations are taking shelter among populated areas. We will continue to operate with minimal damage to civilians," he added.
Sources in the Israel Defense Forces noted that with all the deep regret over the incident, Israeli cannot halts its operation while Hizbullah terrorists are directing their Katyusha rockets at Israeli cities, including at hospitals.
"We will continue to operate against terror as needed without hesitating and without being deterred," Olmert said.
"There are many elements that will seek to take advantage of the Qana incident for a 'celebration.' I regret the fact that these elements will try and take advantage of this and defame Israel's moral profile... We want to hurt Hizbullah and this organization only. We do not wish to hurt civilians, this is not our policy. The State of Israel deeply regrets the fact that civilians were hurt during an operation that was aimed at preventing the launching of rockets and the murder of innocent Israelis."The prime minister promised to cooperate with humanitarian aid organizations and said that Israel plans to continue to provide the population stuck in Lebanon with humanitarian aid.
Posted by: placownik | Sunday, 30 July 2006 at 08:58 AM