More than 5,000 people protested in central Beirut, denouncing Israel and the
United States, some chanting, "Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv." A few broke
car windows and tried briefly to break into the main U.N. building until
political leaders called for a halt to damage.
A demonstrator shouting slogans flashes the
victory sign during a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Madrid July
30, 2006 urging the government of Israel to stop attacks on Lebanon.
[Reuters] |
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr questioned Israel's claim that Hezbollah
fired rockets from the village. "What do you expect Israel to say? Will it say
that it killed 40 children and women?" he told Al-Jazeera television.
Qana, in the hills east of the southern port city of Tyre, has a bloody
history. In 1996, Israeli artillery killed more than 100 civilians who had taken
refuge at a U.N. base in the village. That attack sparked an international
outcry that helped end an Israeli offensive.
The attack drew swift condemnation from several world leaders.
French President Jacques Chirac's office said "France condemns this
unjustifiable action, which shows more than ever the need to move toward an
immediate cease-fire, without which other such dramas can only be repeated."
Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned "the ugly crime perpetrated by Israeli
forces in Qana," calling it "a blatant violation of the law and all
international conventions."
Lebanese civilians have suffered the most from the fighting. Before Sunday's
attack, Lebanese officials said 458 Lebanese had been killed, most of them
civilians. Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died, and Hezbollah rocket attacks
on northern Israel have killed 19 civilians.
Fighting also broke out between guerrillas and Israeli soldiers in a zone
called the Taibeh Project area, about 2 miles inside Lebanon. The Israeli army
said one soldier was moderately wounded. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV claimed two
Israeli soldiers were killed.
Heavy artillery rained down on the villages of Yuhmor and Arnoun, close to
Taibeh. In northern Israel, rockets fell on Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and an area
close to Maalot, the army said.
Israel has said it would launch a series of limited ground incursions into
Lebanon to push back guerrillas, rather than carry out a full-fledged invasion.
Israeli troops pulled back Saturday from the town of Bint Jbail, suggesting the
thrust, launched a week ago, had halted.
But Lebanese officials reported a massing of troops and 12 tanks near the
Israeli town of Metulla further to the northeast, on the tip of the Galilee
Panhandle near the Golan Heights, suggesting another incursion could begin soon.
"I think it needs to be clear that Israel is not in a hurry to have a
cease-fire before we reach a situation in which we can say that we achieved the
central goals that we set down for ourselves," Olmert said Sunday before his
weekly Cabinet meeting.
