LEBANON: Israeli air strike in Qana kills at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including many children

Record ID: 352885

  • Title: LEBANON: Israeli air strike in Qana kills at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including many children
  • Date: 30th July 2006
  • Summary: (W3 )QANA, LEBANON (JULY 30, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF UNIFIL TROOPS AT SITE / UN VEHICLES/ UN FLAG ON VEHICLE
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA6I5WVVOK36PFDJO3XYQS46A98
  • Story Text: An Israeli air strike killed 54 civilians, including 37 children, on Sunday (July 30), prompting Lebanon to tell U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to stay away from Beirut and fuelling world pressure for a ceasefire. The raid on the southern village of Qana was the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah.
    Police said Qana, which is about 11 km (7 miles) from the border with Israel, was bombed at 0130 a.m. (2230 GMT on Saturday), destroying a three-storey building where about 63 displaced people were sheltering in the basement.
    Many were killed in their sleep. "Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and defenceless women? What have they done wrong?" asked Mohamed Samai, whose relatives were among the dead.
    The bodies were wrapped tightly in plastic sheets and taped closed. They were assembled under an awning and flowers were placed on the corpses.
    Distraught people in Qana screamed in grief and anger amid wrecked buildings as others scrabbled at slabs of concrete with their hands to try to reach people buried in the debris.
    According to survivors most of the victims where civilians. Mohamad Shelhoub, a survivor told Reuters "They hit us with their warplanes at one or two in the morning, we were sleeping." He added that many of his family dies in the attack, the surviving are in hospital.
    The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops and Red Cross workers helped emergency workers in the search for bodies trapped under the rubble.
    Red Cross sources said they had recovered the bodies of 38 people and that at least 17 bodies were feared still buried under the rubble, including those of seven more children.
    Many distraught residents of Qana having to come to terms with the loss of loved one and most of their belongings, have fled to a hotel in Tyre where they live rather comfortably but they feel anything else but comfortable.
    Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not hold any talks on resolving the latest Middle East crisis before an immediate ceasefire after Israeli bombing killed 40 civilians in south Lebanon.
    In the latest development, Israel has agreed to suspend its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours to allow for an investigation into the attack, according to a U.S. State Department spokesman speaking at a briefing in Jerusalem.
    He said Israeli authorities will also coordinate with the United Nations to allow a 24-hour window for residents in southern Lebanon to leave the area if they wish.
    At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon in the war, although the health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.
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