Israeli Massacre in Qana
More than 54 civilians including at least 34 children have been killed in the South Lebanon village of Qana by Israel, in a targeted missile attack on an apartment block at the dead of Saturday night. The displaced families had found what must have seemed a safe basement shelter.
This atrocity has resonance to the previous Israeli massacre of some 105 civilians killed whilst sheltering in a UN base in Qana in 1996, during the Israeli 'Grapes of Wroth' military campaign.
To deliberately target civilians and civilian populated areas is a war crime under Article 4 of the Geneva Convention. Israel argues that leaflets had warned people to flee the area, but how can an entire population simply move out, and where can they go to that is safe from Israeli attack? Israel has destroyed roads, bridges, power plants, petrol stations, buildings of all descriptions, and also bombed red-cross ambulances, UN Monitors, and even convoys of refugees fleeing further north. Not all families have transport, and petrol is scarce. It is not easy to move small, tired and hungry children, and many are too sick, elderly or afraid to leave their homes.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is waging a wanton war of destruction; almost a blitzkrieg, on South Lebanon, and even beyond.
As Russian President Putin observed in the early stages of the conflict, it is about more than a couple of Israeli hostages taken at the Lebanese border. This action by Israel must be part of an American / Israeli predetermined military plan to establish a buffer zone in south Lebanon which is devoid of any inhabitants. With houses and livelihoods destroyed, few refugees will be able to return. Perhaps part of the plan is to involve Syria and Iran, and give Israel a pretext to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
Israel believes it has an open mandate from America, and President George W Bush believes he has the steadfast backing of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But is our PM beginning to get it at last? Today Tony Blair acknowledged that "What has happened in Qana shows this is a situation that simply cannot continue"
UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan described the action as "Death and destruction on an unacceptable scale"