MIDDLE EAST: Israel expresses "deep sorrow" over bombing of a Lebanese village that killed at least 54 civilians, including 37 children but vows the war against Hizbollah would go on

As Israeli troops continued to operate in and out southern Lebanon on Sunday (July 30) Israel expressed "deep sorrow" over the bombing of a Lebanese village that killed at least 54 civilians, including 37 children, but vowed the war against Hizbollah would go on. Trying to stem international outrage over the attack on Qana, the Israeli military said it was unaware civilians were sheltering in the buildings it bombed and blamed Hizbollah fighters for using the area to fire rockets at the Jewish state. "We regret deeply for the loss of civilians and will continue to learn the details. But we see the responsibility for operating from within civilian environment over the Hizbollah organisation. This terror organisation has chosen deliberately, has chosen deliberately to operate from within civilian population," said Brigadier-General Ido Nechoshtan at a special army briefing at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he presented a video which claims to show militants firing rockets at Israel from within the houses of Qana village. According to Nechoshtan, Hizbollah launched scores of missiles from Qana into Israel. He said several were launched within a few dozen metres (yards) of the bombed building. As the briefing took place a group of peace activists staged an anti-war demonstration outside the Defence Ministry, calling on the Israeli government to cease the 19-day-old war on Lebanon. The offensive is aimed at securing the release of two kidnapped Israeli soldiers and halting rocket attacks on Israel. The activists were confronted by a handful of pro-Israeli protesters who demonstrated support in the Jewish state. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Hizbollah which operated from within populated areas was to blame. She also promised an investigation into the bloodiest single attack during Israel's offensive on Hizbollah. "Israel expresses great sorrow at the lost of innocent lives and will conduct an examination of this incident. Israel is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties in its was against Hizbollah which is deliberately targetting innocent civilians," she told Reuters. "We noted time and again that Hizbollah is operating from civilian areas, thus placing them at risk, for that reason Israel has called upon the Lebanese civilians to leave the areas from Hizbollah carries out its terrorist activities. At these difficult time and in face of this unfortunate events it is incumbent upon all of us in the international community to make sure that we do not divert from our main goal to provide this region with a long-term and sustainable solution," she added. The death toll and the grim television images coming out of the southern Lebanese village have intensified international pressure on Israel to accept an immediate ceasefire. But Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier on Sunday (July 30) the offensive would continue. The raid has drawn parallels to Israeli shelling in April 1996 that killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at the base of U.N. peacekeepers in Qana during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign against Hizbollah. Israeli officials quickly went on the defensive. The army said it had told civilians to leave Qana days ago. Senior officials also blamed Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, for starting the war by abducting two Israeli soldiers and killing eight in a cross-border raid on July 12. Indeed, the war has huge popular backing in Israel, where more than 300,000 people in the country's north have fled Hizbollah rocket attacks and sought shelter further south. Many Israeli commentators call the offensive the Jewish state's most "just war" since Israel's founding in 1948. At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon in the war. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed. Meanwhile thousands of Palestinians protested against the attack on Qana and Palestinian militant groups vowed revenge attacks on the Jewish state. Sympathy runs strong among Palestinians for fellow Arabs in Lebanon, caught in Israel's offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas, who have fired about 1,700 rockets into Israel since the violence began. Protests were also joined by more than 100 people, mostly Israeli Arabs, in Israel's northern city of Haifa, a frequent target of Hizbollah rocket attacks. The Israeli air strike has largely overshadowed an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. About 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon after fleeing or being driven from homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war at the founding of the state. In the West Bank city of Ramallah Palestinians burned Israeli and U.S. flags. A month-old offensive in Gaza to recover another captured soldier and end cross-border rocket fire has left 150 Palestinians dead, about half of them militants.

ITN Source | July 31, 2006

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