Israel stops bombing after civilians killed

JERUSALEM – Israel suspended air attacks on south Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of widespread outrage over an airstrike Sunday that killed at least 56 Lebanese, almost all of them women and children, when it leveled a building where they had taken shelter.

The announcement – made by a U.S. State Department spokesman with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem – appeared to reflect American pressure on Israel to make some concession after the strike.

In addition to suspending air attacks, Israel also will allow corridors to be opened for Lebanese civilians who want to leave south Lebanon for the north and will maintain land, sea and air corridors for humanitarian assistance, officials said.

Israeli government officials confirmed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to an immediate 48-hour halt to airstrikes in Lebanon at 2 a.m. today while the military concludes its inquiry into the attack on the south Lebanese village of Qana. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to talk to reporters.

The officials left open the possibility Israel might hit targets to stop imminent attacks, and the suspension could last less than 48 hours if the military completes its inquiry before then.

But Lebanon said the Israeli suspension is inadequate.

“There is no cease-fire and there is no cessation of hostilities,” Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud said at the United Nations late Sunday. “We are looking for something much more than that.”

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

A three-story house on the outskirts of Qana, Lebanon, was leveled when a missile crashed into it at 1 a.m. Red Cross officials said 56 people were killed, and police said 34 children and 12 adult women were among the dead. It was the worst single strike since Israel’s campaign in Lebanon began on July 12 after Hezbollah militants crossed the border into Israel and abducted two soldiers.

The attack in Qana brought Lebanon’s death toll to more than 510 and pushed American peace efforts to a crucial juncture as fury at the United States flared in Lebanon.

The Beirut government said it no longer will negotiate on a U.S. peace package without an unconditional cease-fire.

Israel apologized for the deaths in Qana but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas, saying they had fired rockets into northern Israel from near the building.

Rice called the Qana bombing “awful” and said she wants “a cease-fire as soon as possible.” It appeared to be her first real call for a quick end to the bloodshed.

President Bush repeated his call for a “sustainable peace” in the Middle East and said, “America mourns the loss of innocent life, those tragic occasions when innocent people are killed.”

Before the suspension of airstrikes was announced, Olmert told Rice the campaign to crush Hezbollah could last two more weeks.

“We will not stop this battle despite the difficult incidents this morning,” he told his Cabinet after the strike, according to a participant. “If necessary, it will be broadened without hesitation.”

The U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session and approved a presidential statement that expressed “shock and distress” over Israel’s attack on Qana but stopped short of condemning it.

After news of the deaths emerged, Rice telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and said she would stay in Jerusalem to continue work on a peace package rather than make a planned visit to Beirut. Saniora said he told her not to come.

Rice later decided to cut her Mideast trip short and return to Washington this morning.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who earlier supported the U.S. stance, said Washington must work faster to put together the broader deal it seeks.

But Saniora said talk of a larger peace package must wait until the firing stops.

He took a tough line and hinted that any Hezbollah response to the airstrike on the village of Qana would be justified.

“As long as the aggression continues, there is response to be exercised,” he said, praising Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, for his “sacrifices.”

Hezbollah said on its Al-Manar television that it will retaliate, vowing, “The massacre at Qana will not go unanswered.” It hit northern Israel on Sunday with 157 rockets – the highest one-day total during the offensive – with one Israeli being moderately wounded and 12 others being lightly hurt, medics said.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, demanded an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, warning the Muslim world will “not forgive” nations that stand in the way of stopping the fighting.

In Beirut, about 5,000 protesters gathered in downtown Beirut, at one point attacking a U.N. building and burning American flags, shouting, “Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv” and chanting for Syria to hit Israel. Another protest by about 50 people on a road leading to the U.S. Embassy forced security forces to close the road there.

Images of children’s bodies tangled in the building’s ruins, being carried away on blankets or wrapped in plastic sheeting were aired on Arab news networks.

At a news conference in Tel Aviv Sunday night, military officers showed aerial footage taken two days ago of Katyushas being fired in proximity to houses in Qana, and of a Katyusha launcher firing missiles and then being driven into Qana and hidden inside a house.

Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir accused Hezbollah of “using their own civilian population as human shields.”

Israel said residents of Qana had been warned to leave.