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Qana: Israel blames Hezbollah
03/08/2006 10:17 - (SA)
Mark Lavie
Jerusalem - The Israeli military's inquiry on the bombing of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed 56 civilians admits a mistake, but charges that Hezbollah fighters used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks, according to a statement released on Thursday.
Israeli planes attacked an apartment house in Qana in the early hours of Sunday. The house collapsed, and rescue workers pulled the bodies of civilians, most of them women and children, out of the rubble.
An international outcry led Israel to call a halt to its air strikes in Lebanon for 48 hours and increased pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in its three-week offensive against Hezbollah.
Not aware of civilians
In a statement summarising the inquiry report, the Israeli military said Israel did not know there were civilians in the building.
"Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," the statement said.
Guidelines
The bombing followed guidelines regarding attacking "suspicious structures" in villages where civilians have been warned to evacuate, the statement said, adding that Hezbollah forces "use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rocket attacks".
The statement said more than 150 rockets have been launched from Qana and the area around it since July 12, when the current conflict erupted.
As a result of the incident, the statement said, the guidelines would be evaluated and updated.
Apology
The chief of staff of the Israeli military. Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, apologised for the loss of civilian life but charged that Hezbollah "uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure".
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch questioned the death toll in the Qana attack. The international group listed the names of 28 known dead from the attack and said that 13 others were missing and might still be buried under the rubble.
The discrepancy was attributed to an assumption that only nine of the people who took shelter in the basement of the building survived, but it emerged that at least 22 escaped, the group said.
Human Rights Watch called for an impartial international investigation of the incident.
- AP
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