Dozens of Lebanese civilians were killed, 22 of them children, in an Israeli strike on a building in the south Lebanon village of Qana on Sunday morning. Dozens of others were reportedly trapped in the building.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Saniora denounced Israel's "war crime", vowing there was no place for talks until Israel ceased its attacks. "There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," Saniora said at a press conference.
Lebanese officials said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was no longer expected to visit Beirut during her trip to the region following the Qana attack.
Rescue workers using only their bare hands searched through piles of debris -- all the Israeli raids left behind of the buildings -- while distraught women joined in to retrieve the bodies and take them away.
Among the buildings hit in the two hours of raids on the southern village of Qana was a shelter where dozens had fled to escape Israeli bombardment of areas thought to be even more exposed. The bodies of 22 children were among those recovered from under the rubble of dozens of buildings which collapsed after the bombardment, said Salam Daher, the civil defense chief in the region. It is estimated that 70 people were killed in this Israeli attack.
The Israeli army rejected responsibility for civilian deaths in the village, claiming "Hizbullah bears the blame because it uses the village as a rocket-launching site".
Some 40 targets were hit in Israeli strikes overnight across Lebanon. Among the targets were buildings used by Hizbullah, rocket launchers and bridges.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army renewed its ground offensive in south Lebanon on Sunday morning. The Israeli forces were heading toward the village of Taibeh. Almanar TV said two israeli soldiers were killed.
