Deadly Strike Not First At U.N. Posts ‘Many Close Calls’ Experienced Before Hit That Killed Refugees

Israeli shells had previously hit two other U.N. posts and fallen close to U.N. convoys during the bombardment of south Lebanon before Thursday’s artillery strike killed at least 75 refugees here.

Witnesses and U.N. officials described previous close calls in the past nine days, and a U.N. official said the tragedy at Qana was “not a surprise,” because of Israeli shelling of positions manned by the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL.

In an incident Wednesday, Israeli planes bombed a U.N. post manned by Nepalese soldiers, sending a shrapnel blast through buildings being used by about 45 refugees, according to the United Nations. The refugees had crowded into a bomb shelter and were unhurt.

“There have been many close calls several times before,” said UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel. “This did not come as a surprise.”

Israeli officials say they do not target UNIFIL camps, but say they fire close to the camps to hit Islamic Hezbollah guerrillas. They say the guerrillas use the U.N. camps as a shield.

In the shelling of the camp at Qana on Thursday, Israel has said it was unaware there were civilians at the camp, and has said it was firing at a Hezbollah Katyusha site in a cemetery about 350 yards away. Israel has urged civilians to leave south Lebanon and said any caught near what it calls military targets will be hit.

At the same time this week, Israel has boasted of the accuracy of its artillery and air attacks, and said the firing at Qana was not a mistake in judgment.

The U.N. soldiers at the Qana camp were tight-lipped about commenting on the Israeli raid. But through its 18-year-history here, UNIFIL troops in Lebanon have frequently found themselves the target of Israeli military force.

The current bombardment of south Lebanon, in which UNIFIL has accommodated about 7,000 refugees and tried to help thousands of others, has increased the severity of those incidents, officials say.

A U.N. post manned by Ghanan soldiers at Sultaniyah, 15 miles southeast of Tyre, was hit by shells early in the current campaign, according to U.N. spokesman Mikael Lindvall.