Lebanese were in a state of shock after what they described as "horrific" pictures of dead children being removed from under rubble in the southern Lebanese village of Qana. In a deadly Israeli raid earlier in the day at least 51 Lebanese civilians, among them 27 children, were killed and seventeen others wounded near the southern port city of Tyre.
"The scenes are shocking... This is simply a war crime," shouted a woman who was among the estimated 4,000 participants in the demonstration near the United Nations House in downtown Beirut. "Our children are dying and the whole international community is watching them die. Aren't they children for God's sake?" she shouted. "I saw grieving women embracing their dead children, I thought I should do something... so I joined the demonstration," she said.
Angry demonstrators, mainly followers of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, managed to break the security around the UN House in downtown Beirut and entered the building. They smashed windows with sticks and broke the lifts at the entrance of the building to protest what they described as a "crime against women and children."
A former pro-Syrian deputy Nasser Kandil, who was taking part in the demonstration, told dpa "the people are angry. This is how the US wants to introduce a new Middle East, by killing our children." This is the second "massacre" in Qana by the Israeli army.
In 1996 when Israel carried a similar onslaught against Hezbollah dubbed "Grapes of Wrath," an Israeli raid struck a UN shelter killing 109 Lebanese civilians. "The Israelis then claimed Hezbollah was firing Katyushas from near the base. What now? Were those children firing Katyushas?" Lebanese President Emile Lahoud told dpa.
"This simply shows how the Israelis do not differentiate between innocent civilians and their military targets," Lahoud said. "We will not accept this. We will demand a serious investigation regarding this barbaric crime against the Lebanese," Lahoud said. "This is a collective punishment of the Lebanese who stayed in their houses refusing to leave their precious land," Lahoud said.
The shock overwhelmed Lebanese even in areas under Israeli fire like the southern port city of Tyre. "I saw the same scenes in 1996.
Women were embracing their dead children in the morgue while others were in shock waiting to hear good news that their loved ones survived," said Hassan Hammoud, a doctor from Tyre. "We were using our own hands to remove the bodies from under the rubble," said Salam Daher, a Red Cross volunteer in Qana. He said people near the destroyed building told him they did not hear anything.
The survivors told him they felt something like an earthquake and suddenly they were covered with rubble and dust. One of the wounded in a Tyre hospital who was suffering from severe shock kept calling for his dead children one by one - Rana, Ali, Rami, Rasha. At least 66 people had taken shelter in the two-storey house, located near the village mosque.
DPA
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