ZoneFlood

The U.N. Security Council called Sunday for an end to violence in Lebanon and expressed “extreme shock and distress” over Israel’s bombing of civilians in the village of Qana which killed 56 people, almost all of them women and children.

But the presidential statement, adopted unanimously by the 15-member council in an emergency session, stopped short of condemning the Israeli airstrike Sunday.

The council said it “strongly deplores this loss of innocent life and the killing of civilians in the present conflict” and called for the council to work without delay to adopt a resolution for a lasting settlement of the crisis.

“The Security Council expresses its extreme shock and distress at the shelling by the Israeli Defense Forces of a residential building in Qana, in southern Lebanon, which has caused the killing of dozens of civilians, mostly children, and injured many others,” it said.

Earlier Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had called again for an immediate halt to violence between Israel and Hezbollah, telling the council he was “deeply dismayed” that his previous appeals went unheeded.

He said the region was becoming impatient that the council, the most powerful U.N. body, had yet to issue a meaningful response after three weeks of war in Lebanon.

“Action is needed now before many more children, women and men become casualties of a conflict over which they have no control,” Annan said.

 [Associated Press | July 30, 2006]