LEBANON: LEBANON BURIES VICTIMS OF ISRAELI SHELL ATTACK ON UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE CAMP

Record ID: 337875

  • Title: LEBANON: LEBANON BURIES VICTIMS OF ISRAELI SHELL ATTACK ON UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE CAMP
  • Date: 30th April 1996
  • Summary: QANA, LEBANON (APRIL 30, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. HAS HUGE CROWD OF MOURNERS AROUND GRAVE SITE/ COFFINS PASSED OVER HEADS OF CROWD (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. SVS COFFINS DRAPED IN LEBANESE FLAGS CARRIED THROUGH CROWD (3 SHOTS) 0.39 3. SV MOURNERS HOLDING BODY OF BABY WRAPPED IN SHROUD OVER CROWD 0.47 4. SV CROWD CHANTING 0.53 5. SV WOMAN ON STRETCHER CARRIED FROM CROWD 0.57 6. HAS/SVS COFFINS PASSED OVER HEADS OF MOURNERS (3 SHOTS) 1.18 7. MCU MAN WEEPING BEING COMFORTED BY FELLOW MOURNERS 1.24 8. SV DISTRESSED WOMAN WAILING BEING RESTRAINED BY FELLOW MOURNERS 1.30 9. SVS WOMEN WITH PHOTOS OF DEAD RELATIVES (3 SHOTS) 1.42 10. SV MAN CARRYING BOY FROM CROWD 1.45 11. SV PULL OUT LV COFFINS CARRIED THROUGH CROWD 2.06 12. SV COFFINS LIFTED TO BURIAL GROUND 2.15 13. SV COFFINS CARRIED OVER CROWD 2.19 14. CU HANDS 2.24 15. SVS GRIEVING WOMEN WITH PHOTOS OF DEAD RELATIVES (5 SHOTS) 2.49 16. SV PULL OUT LV LARGE CROWD OF MOURNERS AT GRAVE SITE 2.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 15th May 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: QANA, LEBANON
  • Reuters ID: LVA3S6MT0C2EUFT6GGJJ4SR3NJCE
  • Story Text: INTRO: Lebanon buried the 102 victims of an Israeli massacre amid shouts of grief and anger from thousands of mourners who called for vengeance against Israel.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------- Thousands of mourners called for vengeance against Israel on Tuesday (April 30) as they buried the 102 victims of an Israeli shell attack on a United Nations refugee camp.

    There were shouts of anger and grief as those who died in the April 18 attack were placed in a mass grave at the village of Qana where they died.

    Thousands packed the plot next to the headquarters of the Fijian contingent of UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

    The coffins were each carried by pall-bearers toward the grave and then many had to be passed over the heads of the crowd as the press of people became too much.

    Women and men relatives of the dead wailed and wept at the graveside. Some fainted, overcome by emotion and the heat.

    Amid shouts and tears, a mourner removed a small white bundle containing the body of a child from its coffin and held it up for the crowd to see.

    "Death Oh Israel," shouted the crowd.

    "Oh Jews, the army of the Prophet will return," they shouted.

    "All of us are resistance. Yes, yes for the resistance. Our people support the resistance," they shouted in a reference to guerrillas fighting to oust Israeli troops from a south Lebanon border strip.

    On April 18 the refugees, mostly woman, children and babies, had taken refuge in flimsy buildings in the U.N. base when at least five artillery shells destroyed them.

    It was the bloodiest episode of Israel's April 11-27 blitz which killed more than 200 people in Lebanon.

    The site is to be turned into a national monument and Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has declared April 18 a national day of remembrace.

    Al-Hariri and Shi'ite Moslem parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had led mourners at the funeral ceremony in the ruins of the Roman hippodrome in the southern port city of Tyre.

    Wahib al-Fadel, Syria's minister for presidential affairs, and top Syrian military officers were among the mourners.

    Senior Christian clerics including a representative of Maronite patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, were also present.


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