Israeli strike kills 60 civilians

An Israeli air strike killed more than 60 Lebanese civilians, including at least 37 children, yesterday, fuelling world pressure for a ceasefire in Israel's war in Lebanon against Hizbollah guerillas.

The raid on the southern village of Qana - the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah - prompted Lebanon to tell US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice she was unwelcome in Beirut for talks.

Rescue workers dug through the rubble with their hands for hours, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.

A Lebanese foreign ministry official told an urgent session of the UN Security Council that more than 60 people were killed, mostly women and children. Police earlier put the toll at 54, 37 of them children.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to condemn the attack and call for an immediate end to hostilities. "I am deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities were not heeded," Mr Annan said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" at the bombing, but vowed the war against Hizbollah would go on.

Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman told the Security Council that Qana was "a hub for Hizbollah" and said Israel had beseeched the residents of the village to leave. But Lebanon said Israeli air strikes on roads and vehicles made it impossible for people in the south to flee.

As anger convulsed Lebanon and the Arab world, protesters smashed their way into the United Nations headquarters in downtown Beirut as thousands massed outside chanting "Death to Israel, Death to America".

Ms Rice, who was in Israel, said she was saddened by the Qana air raid, but stopped well short of calling for an immediate ceasefire. Her mediation drive in tatters, Ms Rice will leave for Washington today to work on a UN resolution that could achieve what the White House called a "sustainable" ceasefire.

It also said the Qana raid showed the critical need for Israel to take "the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said fighting had to stop once a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire is passed. "What has happened in Qana shows this is a situation that simply cannot continue," he said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not hold negotiations before a ceasefire, scuppering Ms Rice's visit. Ms Rice later said she had called off her trip to Beirut.

Mr Siniora, often at odds with Hizbollah, thanked its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and "all those who sacrifice their lives for the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon".

Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths at Israeli hands. In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at the base of UN peacekeepers in Qana during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign.

International outrage over that attack helped force Israel to end its 17-day campaign that killed more than 200 Lebanese.

Police said Qana, about 11 km from the border with Israel, was bombed at 1:30 a.m. (2230 GMT Saturday). The raid flattened a three-storey building where more than 60 displaced people were in the basement. Many died as they slept. "Why have they attacked one- and two-year-old children and defenceless women?" asked one bereaved man, Mohamed Samai.

The bodies were wrapped tightly in plastic sheets and assembled under an awning. Flowers were placed on the corpses. Israel said it was unaware civilians were in the building and accused Hizbollah of firing rockets from Qana. Hizbollah vowed to retaliate. "This horrific massacre will not go without a response," it said. The governing Palestinian movement Hamas also pledged to hit back with attacks on Israel.

Another Israeli air strike killed five civilians, including two children, in their house in the southern village of Yaroun.

About 146 rockets hit Israel yesterday, wounding six people, police said. At least three slammed into the city of Haifa.

Ms Rice said it was "time to get to a ceasefire", but insisted this required changing the status quo before the war, which erupted after Hizbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The United States says the priority is to remove the threat posed to Israel by Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria.

At least 561 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed.

Many Arab and European leaders condemned the Qana bombing - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described it as state terrorism - and called for an immediate ceasefire.

In Qana, rescue workers lay a girl's body on the ground and ran to search for more. They heaved hunks of concrete off a dead child crushed underneath. The rigid corpse of a young boy, his bloody face disfigured, lay near a pulverised building.

Hours later, rescuers were still clambering over rubble using their hands to extract corpses. Two mechanical diggers, one provided by UN peacekeepers, eventually joined the effort.