The bloodshed in Lebanon prompted Rice to cut short her Mideast mission and
intensified world demands on Washington to back an immediate end to the
fighting.
In Jerusalem, Rice called the Qana bombing "awful" and said she will push for
a cease-fire and a "lasting settlement" in the conflict through a
UN
Security Council resolution this week. It appeared to be her first real call for
a quick end to the bloodshed.
"I am convinced that only by achieving both will the Lebanese people be able
to control their country and their future, and the people of Israel finally be
able to live free of attack from terrorist groups in Lebanon," Rice told
reporters Monday before departing for Washington.
A three-story house on the outskirts of Qana was leveled when a missile
crashed into it at 1 a.m. Red Cross officials said 56 were killed and police
said 34 children and 12 adult women were among the dead. It was worst single
strike since Israel's campaign in Lebanon began on July 12 when Hezbollah
militants crossed the border into Israel and abducted two soldiers.
The attack in Qana brought Lebanon's death toll to more than 510 and pushed
American peace efforts to a crucial juncture, as fury at the United States
flared in Lebanon.
The Beirut government said it would no longer negotiate over a US peace
package without an unconditional cease-fire.
In Qana, workers pulled dirt-covered bodies of young boys and girls -
dressed in the shorts and T-shirts they had been sleeping in - out of the
mangled wreckage of the building. Bodies were carried in blankets.
Two extended families, the Shalhoubs and the Hashems, had gathered in the
house for shelter from another night of Israeli bombardment in the border area
when the strike brought the building down.
"I was so afraid. There was dirt and rocks and I couldn't see. Everything was
black," said 13-year-old Noor Hashem, who survived, although her five siblings
did not. She was pulled out of the ruins by her uncle, whose wife and five
children also died.
Israel apologized for the deaths but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas, saying they
had fired rockets into northern Israel from near the building.
President Bush repeated his call for a "sustainable peace" and said:
America mourns the loss of innocent life, those tragic occasions when innocent
people are killed."
Before the suspension of airstrikes was announced, Olmert told Rice the
campaign to crush Hezbollah could last up to two weeks more.
"We will not stop this battle, despite the difficult incidents this morning,"
he told his Cabinet after the strike, according to a participant. "If necessary,
it will be broadened without hesitation."
The U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session Sunday and approved a
presidential statement that called for an end to violence in Lebanon and
deplored Israel's attack on Qana. But it stopped short of condemning Israel.
