UN expresses 'extreme shock' over Qana bombing

Israel said it had beseeched civilians to leave before the raid. Picture / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a statement deploring the Israel's deadly attack on the southern Lebanese village of Qana but rejected UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for an immediate truce.

The air strike on Qana - the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah - killed at least 54 civilians, including 37 children.

The UN policy statement expressed "extreme shock and distress" at the strike and asked Annan to report within a week "on the circumstances of this tragic incident."

It stressed "the urgency of securing a lasting, permanent and sustainable ceasefire" and affirmed the council's determination to work "without any further delay" to adopt a resolution "for a lasting settlement of the crisis."

US Ambassador John Bolton said he opposed calling for a truce, saying returning to "business as usual" was not a lasting solution and what was important was to address the "tragic loss of civilian life".

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry official, Nouhad Mahmoud: told reporters, "We were looking for stronger action, stronger language, but we believe that the statement contained language which commits the council for further action."

Israel earlier agreed to suspend its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours, starting immediately, to allow for an investigation into Sunday's bombing.

It confirmed it would coordinate with the United Nations to allow a 24-hour window for residents of southern Lebanon to leave the area if they wished.

Rescue workers in Qana dug through the rubble with their hands for hours, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier urged the Security Council to condemn the attack and call for an immediate end to hostilities. "I am deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded," Annan said.

A Lebanese foreign ministry official told the council that more than 60 people were killed, mostly women and children. Police earlier put the toll at 54, 37 of them children.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" following the bombing, but vowed the war against Hizbollah would go on.

Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman told the Security Council that Qana was "a hub for Hizbollah" and said Israel had beseeched the residents of the village to leave. But Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on roads and vehicles made it impossible for people in the south to flee.

Angry reaction

As anger convulsed Lebanon and the Arab world, protesters smashed their way into the United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut as thousands massed outside chanting "Death to Israel, Death to America".

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said fighting had to stop once a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire is passed. "What has happened in Qana shows this is a situation that simply cannot continue," he said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not hold negotiations before a ceasefire, scuppering Rice's visit. Rice later said she had called off her trip to Beirut.

Siniora, often at odds with Hizbollah, thanked its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and "all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon".

Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths at Israeli hands. In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at the base of UN peacekeepers in Qana during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign.

International outrage over that attack helped force Israel to end its 17-day campaign that killed more than 200 Lebanese.

Police said Qana, about 11 km (seven miles) from the border with Israel, was bombed at 1.30am. (10.30am Sunday NZT). The raid flattened a three-storey building where more than 60 displaced people were in the basement. Many died as they slept.

Israel said it was unaware civilians were in the building and accused Hizbollah of firing rockets from Qana.

Hizbollah vowed to retaliate. "This horrific massacre will not go without a response," it said. The governing Palestinian movement Hamas also pledged to hit back with attacks on Israel.

Another Israeli air strike killed five civilians, including two children, in their house in the southern village of Yaroun.

About 146 rockets hit Israel on Sunday, wounding six people, police said. At least three slammed into the city of Haifa.

Rice said it was "time to get to a ceasefire", but insisted this required changing the status quo before the war, which erupted after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

At least 561 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.

- REUTERS