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]

Israel has agreed to a 48-hour halt in aerial activity over southern Lebanon, a U.S. official said Sunday amid widespread outrage over an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 56 Lebanese, mostly women and children, when it leveled a building where they had taken shelter.

The announcement of the pause in overflights — made by State Department spokesman Adam Ereli — appeared to reflect American pressure on Israel. Ereli, who was in Israel with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said Israel has reserved the right to hit targets if it learns that attacks are being prepared against them. There was no immediate confirmation by Israeli officials.

The stunning bloodshed in Lebanon earlier on Sunday prompted Rice to cut short her Mideast mission and intensified world demands on Washington to back an immediate end to the fighting.

[Associated Press | July 30, 2006]

From Israel’s Ynet News:

Despite the events in Qana, the US is decided in its rejection of an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah. Minutes after speaking on the telephone with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice (who currently in Israel), US Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, declared that the United States is not interested in repeating former mistakes.

From early BBC Reports:

 

Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area. The BBC’s Fergal Keane at the scene saw two small boys pulled from the rubble.

The number of wounded appears small, he says - which indicates very few survived.

Reporters spoke of survivors screaming in grief and anger, as some scrabbled through the debris with bare hands.

“We want this to stop,” a villager shouted.

“May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting.”

From AP:

The Mediterranean is threatened by its worst ever environmental disaster after Israel’s bombing of a power plant in Lebanon sent thousands of tonnes of fuel gushing into the sea

From the BBC:

Israel says it will keep control over an area in southern Lebanon until an international force can be deployed.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz said: “We have no other option. We have to build a new security strip that will be a cover for our forces.”

From USA Today:

Israeli warplanes struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern Lebanon, killing three people.

Echoing statements made from the beginning of the conflict, Hizbollah has again said that discussions over soldiers’ return could begin. From the Jerusalem Post:

Hizbullah agreed to allow the Lebanese government to begin negotiations regarding kidnapped IDF soldiers, speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri revealed on Sunday.

Berri stressed that prior to any talks on a prisoner swap, a cease-fire must be in place.

Syria has said that any Middle East Ceasefire must include discussion of the occupied Golan Heights. From the NYTimes:

Syria, one of Hezbollah’s main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end the fighting — but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that would include the return of the Golan Heights. Israel was unlikely to accept such terms but the remarks were the first indication of Syria’s willingness to be involved in international efforts to defuse the Lebanese crisis.

Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the peace along the border.

From the Moshe Dayan Center:

Following a brief period of calm on Israel’s northern border, the drums of war have begun to beat again in recent weeks. This time, the background to what thus far remains only verbal escalation is not Hizbullah actions against Israel. Instead, it is the Lebanese Government’s intention to begin pumping water from the Wazzani River, one of the tributaries of the Jordan.

Israel has warned Beirut that if it goes ahead with its plans, Israel will treat the project as a casus belli. And Hizbullah has predictably weighed in with its own demands that the Government of Lebanon proceed as planned and ignore Israeli warnings. Hizbullah spokesmen have added that if Israel acts against Lebanon, Hizbullah will respond by attacking targets in Israel.