Israel Moves to Suspend Air Attacks for 2 Days After Strike in Lebanese Village Kills 57 Civilians

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Deadly Attack in Qana
Israeli warplanes blasted a group of buildings in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, killing dozens of people, most of them women and children. The Israeli military said the airstrike was aimed at destroying Hezbollah rocket launchers nearby and that civilians were not being targeted.

The Israeli military has not yet said what munitions were used in the attack, but according to the Web site globalsecurity.org, a clearinghouse of military information, an MK-84 is a 2,000-pound bomb.

Red Cross drivers said they tried to approach the village at 6:30 a.m. but turned away three times because Israeli shells were falling in the streets ahead of them. Later, rescue workers in orange jumpsuits dug through the rubble, pulling out the bodies of men, women and children. Most of the victims were in the basement of one building, where they had gone for safety when a pair of airstrikes hit the village beginning at 1 a.m., witnesses said.

Many Arab television stations broadcast the rescue operations live, showing footage of the dead, young girls covered in dust, in pajamas, some with limbs severed, being lifted from the rubble.

Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said 57 people were killed. Thirty-seven children were among the victims. Khalifeh said families had told Red Cross workers that at least 10 people were still missing.

Five other civilians were killed by shelling on the village of Yaroun, about 20 miles farther southeast, al-Jazeera reported. Yaroun lies in a pocket of territory that also includes Bint Jbeil, Maroun al-Ras and Aitaroun, towns that have been the scene of frequent ground encounters between invading Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters manning rocket launchers and munitions caches.

More than 510 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began, the vast majority of them civilians. Israeli officials expressed regret over the civilian deaths in Qana but blamed them on Hezbollah fighters, who they said were firing rockets from the area. Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, said civilians had been warned by broadcasts, telephone calls and leaflets to leave the Qana area because rockets were being fired from there.

Nineteen Israeli civilians have been killed by the rockets since hostilities broke out after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12. In addition, 33 Israeli soldiers have been killed, most of them in clashes just inside Lebanon.

"That building was not targeted," said Capt. Noa Meir, an Israeli army spokeswoman, referring to the structure in Qana. "There were missiles being launched 100 to 300 meters from the building. We don't target civilians, and had we known there were civilians there, we would not have fired on that site."

Later Sunday, Israeli Air Force Brig. Gen. Amir Eshel said in a briefing for reporters that the military was probing an apparent several-hour gap between the time of an airstrike near the site of the Qana building and the time the building collapsed. He said that the area was targeted between midnight and 1 a.m. and that the building collapsed six or seven hours later.

"It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there," Eshel said, in an apparent suggestion that stored Hezbollah explosives had caused the destruction.

"At this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap."

An Israeli military spokesman later said the military's belief that the building had not collapsed until nearly 8 a.m. stemmed from initial news reports of the attack. "I want to be clear, we're not denying responsibility in any way," the spokesman said. "I was with the generals earlier when they were looking at the reconnaissance photography to try to analyze it. They are still trying to figure this out."

Finer reported from Jerusalem. Staff writer Robin Wright in Jerusalem, correspondents Anthony Shadid in Qana and Nora Boustany in Beirut, and special correspondent Faiza Saleh Ambah in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.