Israel halts air attacks in south Lebanon
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-31 09:53
At a news conference in Tel Aviv Sunday night, military officers showed
aerial footage taken two days ago of Katyushas being fired in proximity to
houses in Qana, and of a Katyusha launcher firing missiles and then being driven
into Qana and hidden inside a house.
Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir accused Hezbollah of "using their own
civilian population as human shields."
Israel said residents of Qana had been warned to leave. On Thursday, the
Israeli military's Al-Mashriq radio that broadcasts into southern Lebanon warned
residents their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired
from them. Leaflets with similar messages were dropped in some areas Saturday.
But Shalhoub and others in the village said residents were too terrified to
take the road out of the village.
The road to the nearest main city, Tyre, is lined with charred wreckage and
smashed buildings from repeated Israeli bombings.
More than 750,000 Lebanese have fled their homes in the fighting. But many
thousands more are still believed holed up in the south, taking refuge in
schools, hospitals or basements of apartment buildings amid the fighting -
many of them too afraid to flee.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr disputed allegations that Hezbollah was
firing missiles from Qana.
"What do you expect Israel to say? Will it say that it killed 40 children and
women?" he told Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV station.
Before dawn Sunday, Israeli ground forces backed by heavy artillery fire
crossed the border and clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas in the Taibeh Project
area, about two miles inside Lebanon. Hezbollah said two of its fighters were
killed. The Israeli military said eight soldiers were wounded.
Some 460 Lebanese, mostly civilians, had been killed in the campaign through
Saturday, according to the Health Ministry - before the attacks on Qana.
Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died, and Hezbollah rocket attacks on
northern Israel have killed 18 civilians, Israeli authorities said.
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