Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, demanded a “quick and decisive ceasefire” on Monday after an Israeli air raid that he at first said killed more than 40 civilians sheltering from fighting in a southern village. Later, though, he said that only one person had been killed.
A resident said about 50 people had been found alive under the rubble.
“The massacre in Houla, it turned out that there was one person killed,” Siniora told reporters. “They thought that the whole building smashed on the heads of about 40 people … thank God they have been saved.”
As diplomatic efforts to end the 27-day-old war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas stalled, air raids elsewhere in the south and the Bekaa valley killed at least 24 Lebanese and Israel said it may expand its ground offensive.
His eyes brimming with tears, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora addressed an Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Beirut. He demanded a quick ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. He also called for a prisoner exchange and for Israel to show where it planted landmines.
Israel is pressing ahead with its offensive while world powers struggle to agree to a United Nations resolution to end the fighting.
Hezbollah says it will fight on until Israel stops bombing Lebanon and pulls out its forces.
United States President George Bush said he wants a UN resolution as quickly as possible and called on Syria and Iran to rein in Hezbollah. “Syria and Iran sponsor and promote Hezbollah activities all aimed at creating chaos, all aimed at using terror to stop the advance of democracies,” he said.
Speaking before news of the Houla raid, Lebanese Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh said the war had killed 925 people, mostly civilians, with 75 missing, presumed dead. About one-third of the dead were children under the age of 13, he told Reuters. Ninety-four Israelis have also been killed.
Hezbollah guerrillas fired more rockets into northern Israel, wounding one person, a day after rockets killed 15 Israelis in the deadliest day of the war for the Jewish state.
Aid lifeline cut
Israeli aircraft also hit the last coastal crossing on the Litani River between Sidon and Tyre, cutting the main artery for aid supplies to civilians in the south, security sources said.
“We must be able to have movement throughout the country to deliver supplies. At this point we can’t do that,” said the UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, David Shearer. “The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law.”
International aid groups said Israel was providing no security guarantees, effectively paralysing its delivery of aid south of the Litani. About 22 000 people remain in the region, less than one fifth of the pre-war population, UN figures say.
In one Beirut building gutted by Lebanon’s 1979-1990 civil war, about 100 people seeking shelter shared one toilet that flowed into an open septic tank.
“I stayed in the bombing for three weeks, but we finally had to leave. Today I found out my house is destroyed,” said Ahmad Taube. “We tried everywhere else, but there was no room. We’re out of money and want to go home. We don’t want to stay here.”
Opposition from Lebanon caused the US and France to delay a vote on a UN resolution. They may submit a revised text after Security Council consultations later in the day.
Lebanon has demanded the resolution include a call for an immediate pull-out of about 10 000 Israeli troops from its soil. A Lebanese official said Arab League foreign ministers would send a delegation to the UN to try to push through the amendments Lebanon wants.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the ground offensive would be expanded if there was no diplomatic solution soon.
Israeli bombing has already pounded Lebanon’s roads, bridges, ports, airports and other installations, though power, water and telephone systems are still more or less functioning.
Al-Arabiya television said three Israeli soldiers were killed in battles with guerrillas in the south. The Israeli army said one soldier was killed and four wounded.
Hezbollah announced the deaths of two more of its fighters. An Israeli army spokesperson said more than 400 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the war. Lebanese security sources say Hezbollah has lost about 90 — about 35 more than it acknowledges. — Reuters