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At Least 60 Dead in Israeli Airstrike in Qana, Lebanon; Israel Agrees to Suspend Air Operations in Southern Lebanon for 48 Hours

Aired July 30, 2006 - 16:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY.
I'm Carol Lin, in for Fredricka Whitfield. We're going to get started with the latest on the Middle East.

Here's what we know so far about the latest in the crisis.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ending her trip to the region after the death of dozens of Lebanese civilians in an Israeli air attack. Now, Lebanon says that the strike killed at least 60 people, including 37 children. Israel expressed deep regret but said Hezbollah had fired rockets from the area.

And in Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians stormed a U.N. compound to protest the Israeli attack. Security officials dispersed the crowd with warning shots.

And the U.N. Security Council is holding a second meeting on the Qana strike. The United States is still resisting calls for an immediate cease-fire.

The Israeli assault occurred this morning in the town of Qana, about 10 miles north of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

CNN's Brent Sadler has the story now from Beirut.

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: Carol, yes, you can just maybe see me through that cloud of generator smoke that just erupted. We heard warplanes over -- the sound -- the Lebanese capital in the past few minutes, and our main supply has just been hit. Of power, that is, to this building. So, hence the noise and hence the fumes.

Just to catch up with the day's events, the latest day's events, the Lebanese cabinet met in a special session to discuss Qana in the past few hours, and they came out with a unanimous position that they want an immediate unconditional cease-fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SADLER (voice over): The lifeless bodies of children were plucked from the rubble at Qana, killed by an Israeli strike. Shock quickly turned to revulsion across the Arab world, but in Lebanon gruesome pictures of the carnage broadcast on local TV networks touched off a violent backlash.

Enraged demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the United Nations in central Beirut. Terrified U.N. staff fled to a basement during the rampage. But outrage calmed when thousands of Lebanese rallied to denounce Israel, its U.S. ally, and what they perceived as global indifference to the mounting death toll.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is collective punishment to the Lebanese people. I think a sense of revolt will unify the Lebanese people of the magnitude of what is happening to its civilians.

SADLER: Especially at Qana, where history tragically repeats itself in a bloody cycle of violence.

Ten years ago, Qana grabbed world headlines in the midst of an Israeli air and artillery blitz to destroy Hezbollah. That 1996 Israeli firestorm was called Grapes of Wrath. A report I filed back then has obvious parallels today.

The shelling never stops for long. A rim of villages south of Tyre taking more punishment. But it's not stopped Hezbollah's rockets.

The next day, April 18th, Israeli artillery shells hit a U.N. compound at Qana manned by Fijian peacekeepers. There was appalling loss among civilians sheltering there, more than 100 killed. I reported the aftermath.

Amid the human debris, raw anger.

(on camera): It's impossible to count the numbers of dead and dying among this chaos and pandemonium.

(voice over): Every year since then, Lebanese have commemorated what they call the Qana massacre. The neat burial site a place for remembrance and bitter reflection of a costly war that had passed but has returned to haunt the present.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Our thanks to Brent Sadler in Beirut. He has unparalleled experience covering Lebanon.

Now to the Israeli side. Israel is blaming Hezbollah for the Qana deaths. The Israelis say the group is treating civilians as human shields, using them as human shields, by placing rocket launchers among them.

CNN's Matthew Chance reports from northern Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israel says it's continuing its military activities inside southern Lebanon. It's deployed ground forces there, particularly around the village of Taibe (ph), about five kilometers or three miles from the border with Israel.

It's there, it says, like Qana, that Hezbollah use the buildings as cover from which to fire Katyusha rockets across the border into Israel, and it's because of that they say they've got their ground forces there and they're trying to neutralize those Hezbollah positions. But over the course of the past day or so since the Qana attacks, Israel has been trying to justify or to explain why it attacks these villages.

It's released a couple of clips of videos, which interesting to take a look at. Neither of them come from the actual attack at Qana, but the first one is from July the 22nd, somewhere in southern Lebanon. We haven't been given an exact location, but it shows quite clearly how Hezbollah fighters fire their Katyusha rockets from behind buildings into Israel.

Again, it's not the actual area of Qana, but it illustrates the general points, according to the Israeli military. There's a second clip of video as well. That is from Qana. It's not the attack, it's not the response to the attack that actually took place, but it is Qana. It is illustrating, the Israeli military say, the way that civilian buildings in Qana like the one that was attacked, although not actually the one that was attacked, are used by Hezbollah from which to fire these rockets into Israel.

Now, Israel has not disputed the fact that its fire caused the destruction and caused the killing, but what it's saying is that because Hezbollah positions its military units so close to these civilian buildings, then they should be held responsible because they are making the civilians in those areas targets to Israeli fire.

The big question being asked around the world tonight, I think, is whether the controversy that's been generated by these killings in Qana will be enough for Israel to change its military strategy that it's been following so far, and so far there is very little evidence of that on the ground.

Matthew Chance, CNN, on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And, of course, what is going to be the United States' role it in trying to end this conflict? Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, now changing her plans.

John King standing by in Jerusalem with this developing story.

John, what do you know?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we have some breaking news in tonight.

Secretary Rice is here for her continued diplomacy, and just in to us now from a senior State Department official is that Israel has agreed to suspend for 48 hours, we are told, effective immediately, air operations in southern Lebanon. This, while Israel investigates what happened in Qana today, and this, more significantly, while it is under pressure from the United States, the United Nations, and others to allow international aid convoys and other humanitarian assistance in to the Qana area.

So, again, this just told to us from the State Department, that Israel has agreed to a 48-hour cessation of air campaign activities in southern Lebanon so it can have an investigation and so humanitarian aid can get in. Forgive me for looking down to read more about this.

During this time, Israel will coordinate with the United Nations to allow 24-hour safe passage for all residents of south Lebanon who wish to leave. Israel also, we are told, will help with humanitarian convoys in there, and Israel does reserve the right, though, we are told by the State Department, to take action if it sees any rockets being launched, any missiles being prepared to be launched. It reserves the right to take action against hostile fire if it sees that about to happen.

But this a very significant development. The United States pressuring Israel. Israel now agreeing, we are told, to a 48-hour cessation of air activities in southern Lebanon.

This a direct reaction, a direct response to the outrage expressed around the world at the bombing in Qana earlier today. Again, for 48 hours, effective immediately, Israel has agreed no air activities in southern Lebanon, and to coordinate with the United Nations to help any residents of that area who want to get out.

So, Carol, obviously a significant development tonight in the diplomacy. It is not a cease-fire for the overall campaign. It is not as much as the world has been demanding. But still, a significant concession from Israel tonight.

LIN: And John, it certainly gives the secretary of state enough time to get back to the White House with this air campaign in suspension to have conversations, direct conversations with the president Monday afternoon?

KING: Well, she will have direct conversations with the president when she gets back. She gets into D.C. I think late -- late afternoon, early evening tomorrow, direct conversations with the president. The bigger challenge, though, Carol, that is the United Nations Security Council.

Secretary Rice leaves here a bit exasperated, we are told, although her mood is probably a bit improving after this one concession from Israel tonight. But she believed before this morning's tragic events that she was making significant progress in the diplomacy, in getting the key parties involved, Lebanon and Israel, to agree on the basic framework of a U.N. Security Council resolution to halt the fighting.

They were trying to work out the final pieces of language. And then you had the tragedy which set back the diplomacy.

She understands her personal credibility is at risk here and is under question, under fire around the world. So the bigger challenge is negotiating the resolution that will bring a permanent end to the fighting., but at least in the interim the United States says it has obtained from Israel a promise that for the next 48 hours there will be no Israel air campaign in southern Lebanon so that humanitarian aid can get into Qana and other areas, so any residents who want to leave can leave during that period of time.

Israel will investigate what happened today. And again, I should add this caveat, though, Israel does reserve the right to strike targets if its intelligence suggests that a rocket is about to be launched from that area.

LIN: John King, big news, indeed. Thank you very much for bringing us that breaking news about this cease-fire -- not a cease- fire, but a 48-hour cessation to the air campaign while they get aid into Qana.

Now, all day we were waiting to hear what the president had to say about what happened in Qana, and this is what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The current situation in the Middle East is a reminder that all of us must work together to achieve a sustainable peace. America mourns the loss of innocent life. It's a tragic occasion when innocent people are killed. And so our sympathies go out to those who've lost their lives today and lost their lives throughout this crisis.

I've been in touch with Secretary of State Rice twice today. She'll be returning tomorrow, where she'll brief me on her discussions with leaders in the Middle East.

I also talked to Tony Blair. The United States is resolved to work with members of the United States -- United Nations Security Council to develop a resolution that will enable the region to have a sustainable peace, a peace that lasts, a peace that will enable mothers and fathers to raise their children in a hopeful world.

May god bless those who lost their lives.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: A sustainable peace that requires dialogue on both sides. Actually, the bombing of Qana cut short the U.S. secretary of state's visit. She was not -- she canceled her trip to Lebanon and decided instead to head back to the United States to talk with the president. This is what Condoleezza Rice said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: In the wake of the of the tragedy of the people -- that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut. In any case, my work today is here. I will continue to meet with Israeli officials as we work to put in place the elements necessary to bring an end to this conflict. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Condoleezza Rice heads back to the United States Monday to meet with the president in the afternoon.

In the meantime, we just heard from John King a big breaking development about her trip. She managed to at least get Israel to agree to a 48-hour cessation of their bombing campaign in Lebanon to allow humanitarian aid into the bombed city of Qana.

Let's go to Nic Robertson, though, in Beirut.

Nic, you have some news about planes in the sky. What's going on?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, we did just hear John King bringing us that report. And John wasn't able to bring us an immediate timeline of when the Israelis plan to bring a cessation of the air activities. And as John said, in southern Lebanon.

But what I can report right now is here in Beirut, north of southern Lebanon, we have just heard in the last 15 minutes a lot of Israeli air activity. A lot of planes flying over, flying north, flying back.

It is not clear where they're going, what they're doing. We're not hearing any loud explosions. We're not hearing any indications of bombs dropping. But this breaks with a lull in air activity in Beirut over the last three days.

This is the first time in three days we've heard this type of air activity. It's quite sustained. The aircraft are coming quite low at times. And this is something that we haven't heard.

Now, is this in connection with the cessation of air activities in the south of -- in the south of Lebanon? We don't know, again, what time frame that cessation is due to begin. But right now over Beirut we've been hearing a lot of air activity -- Carol.

LIN: Nic, I just want to get your perspective, also, on these allegations. The Israelis are saying that Hezbollah using civilians as human shields. Give me a sense of what people are telling you on the ground, their feelings about Hezbollah and whether Hezbollah is in fact luring Israeli missile attacks to civilian areas.

ROBERTSON: Well, there's certainly in the south of the country huge support for Hezbollah. Plenty of people will tell you that they would -- that they would happily go into the fight and die for Hezbollah.

There's very, very loyal support for them. And Hezbollah is an organization that's -- that's grown up from the grassroots. It has built a lot of loyal support over the past couple of decades.

We also know that Hezbollah does launch their missiles from close to areas where -- where civilians are, close to civilian housing, from close to U.N. bases along the border. There's no doubt about that.

We don't know the specifics of what happened in Qana. Clearly we've seen the pictures that the Israeli Defense Forces have been able to show of buildings where they -- you can see missiles apparently being fired out from. And these images are taken from fairly close on the land, some of those images taken across the hills, so getting a good view of the building.

So the Israeli Defense Forces getting a good idea of exactly where the missiles are fired and from behind which buildings. But again, in the specific case of Qana, the investigation there is really yet to begin in thorough detail on the ground in the town of Qana. But there's no doubt that civilians are still living in the south of the country.

Some of them don't have the money, have chosen not to leave, have elderly relatives they don't want to leave behind. They're too scared from what they've seen from other bombings.

Journalists in the south report today of a lot of devastation along the roads south of Tyre, in the south -- in the south of Lebanon. So, again, for a lot of the people living in the south, they're very afraid about leaving, even if they can -- even if they can afford -- afford to do it. But we just don't know the details of Qana at the moment -- Carol.

LIN: All right.

Nic Robertson, reporting live from Beirut with immediate reaction to -- and action, also, in the air as he continues to hear planes flying overhead. Israel announcing a cessation to the air campaign, certainly in south Lebanon, to allow humanitarian aid into the town of Qana, which was bombed, the Israelis say, by mistake. Dozens of civilian deaths there.

We are on top of this story throughout the hour.

And also, the allegations that are flying about what really happened on the ground. At the United Nations, an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council and allegations of genocide. The emergency session of the Security Council in progress on the crisis in the Middle East.

CNN's Richard Roth is going to join me next.

Plus, Israel says it was a mistake. Armed with the best war technology money can buy, this can still happen? We're going to talk to our military analyst coming up on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

LIN: Let me ask you this. We've just heard from John King in Jerusalem, traveling with the secretary of state, that Israel has agreed to a 48-hour cessation of its air campaign in southern Lebanon. What, if anything, does this mean to the proceedings at the United Nations?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's significant, at least in the short term. Secretary-General Kofi Annan walked into the afternoon session behind closed doors on this emergency day considerably minutes after the rest of the ambassadors. So he may be bringing information with him. And in a way, it complicates it.

In a way, it's good news for Annan, who has been increasingly impatient that the council has not issued a call for a cease-fire. It may get some people off the hook if Israel is willing to have some type of even brief cessation of hostilities.

The Security Council is, behind closed doors now, possibly going over all of this. And they were trying to figure out for hours how to react just to the Qana attack. Earlier, before news of any possible short-term halt, cease-fire by Israel, the secretary-general said the council should demand a cessation of hostilities as quickly as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Cessation of hostilities is -- can be agreed upon by the parties for a limited duration, for whatever duration, to stop the fighting, for assistance to be given to civilians, to get civilians out of harm's way, to allow more time for diplomatic work and negotiations. A cease-fire is similar, but it has to be negotiated in detail and usually takes time.

So, if -- and so if you wish a cessation of hostilities, it's like a truce, where the parties can agree to it without detailed nailed-down negotiations, which is very time-consuming. And this is why I'm also interested in cease-fire, but that will take a bit of time and I wanted to see the cessation of hostilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Now this was Secretary-General Annan before an announcement that Israel is considering and going to adopt a short cease-fire for aerial attacks in southern Lebanon.

Earlier, Lebanon's foreign representative, foreign ministry representative, accused Israel, in effect, of war crimes against his country with the Qana attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOUHAD MAHMOUD, LEBANESE REPRESENTATIVE TO U.N. (through translator): In your conscience, in the deepest heart of human hearts you all realize and know that Israel is committing war massacres. Israel is committing atrocities against humanity. The fact that such massacres are yet regrettably to be taken up by resolutions of this august council, that fact does not mean that the truth is to remain hidden. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Israel, for its part, spoke right after Lebanon and said Hezbollah is using human shields to launch its missiles on Israel, and the anger in Beirut and elsewhere should be focused at that militia group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMB. TO U.N.: We today say we are truly sorry for the people of Lebanon and for the people who were killed. I have never heard the Hezbollah say they're sorry for a single Israeli that was killed, woman, child, elderly, civilian, or innocent. Never.

Why? Because they target us specifically. This is their declared aim. And this is what we're fighting. And while for us every dead Lebanese child is a horrible mistake and a tragedy, for them every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The United States continues to insist here and elsewhere that Israel has a right to defend itself and has been holding out against other council members for some type of formal action against -- declaring some sort of immediate cessation of hostilities. Any -- any Israeli 48-hour halt is going to buy Washington more time and may make it easier to sign on to some type of statement in the short term at tonight's consultations -- Carol.

LIN: All right, Richard. We'll be looking for news out of that meeting tonight.

Thank you very much.

There is much more ahead on this special edition of CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

There are questions about the effectiveness of the United Nations. There is actually a force on the ground, official observers there.

What are they doing? Israel has asked them for help. We're going to take a look.

Plus, Israel says that the Qana attack was a mistake. How did it happen? We're going to talk to our military analyst.

And also, right back here in America, new concerns about protection for Jewish buildings.

You're watching the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: All right. We've had big developments here on the diplomatic front in the Middle East crisis. CNN's John King standing by in Jerusalem.

John, you have been traveling with the secretary of state. She made a major announcement today.

KING: She did, Carol. From her spokesman, Adam Ereli, just a few moments ago, after a day of frustration and tragedy, frustration including, for the secretary of state and her diplomacy, a dramatic announcement tonight. The State Department announcing just moments ago that Israel has agreed to a 48-hour cessation of aerial military activity in southern Lebanon.

Now, this is being done, we are told, so that Israel can investigate the tragic bombing today in Qana. But it is also being done so that there can be a clear rush of humanitarian aid into southern Lebanon, including the Qana area, without the threat of airstrikes from above.

Adam Ereli, the State Department spokesman, traveling with Secretary Rice, making this announcement a short time ago. Also saying that Israel has agreed to work with the United Nations on a 24- hour period of time, safe passage they called it, so that any residents of southern Lebanon who want to leave can leave with the full knowledge there will be no Israeli air military activity during that period of time.

Now, Israel does reserve the right in this agreement to take action if it sees, say, Hezbollah moving rockets into a position. If it sees threatening action, someone about to launch a strike against it, it reserves the right to take military action. But, in effect, you will have a cease-fire in the aerial military campaign for 48 hours, effective immediately, we are told.

And for all intents and purposes, Carol, this is essentially a cease-fire for almost all Israeli military activity in southern Lebanon for the next 48 hours, because Israel is very unlikely to send any significant number of ground troops into a dangerous operation without giving them air cover. So you would not have a major ground military offensive without air support. It just simply is against all the rules of military doctrine.

So essentially in this agreement what you get is a 48-hour cessation of hostilities in the southern part of Lebanon.

We should make clear this is for 48 hours, it is temporary, it is a direct result of the international condemnation of what happened today in Qana, a direct result of pressure put on Israel by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but it is not an overall solution to this crisis. There is still no cease-fire for the rest of Lebanon. Israel could launch strikes in other parts of the country, including near Beirut, during this 48 hours, and there is still an ongoing debate about an overall agreement to end the hostilities.

But still, a very significant development tonight, a 48-hour agreement in which Israel will not have any air military campaigns in southern Lebanon unless it sees a target threatening Israel and during that period of time, we should see much more aggressive effort to not only get humanitarian effort into Qana, other southern Lebanese towns, but also to get any residents who now have decided it is time to get out, to get them out safely. Carol?

LIN: John, thank you very much. John King reporting live in Jerusalem. Up next, emotional reaction from those affected by the violence in the Middle East, voices from Israel and Lebanon when we come back.

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