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Qana: The site of outrage

Attack on Lebanese town, already seen as symbol for Arabs, provokes outrage and derails Rice's efforts

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | Newsday Middle East Correspondent

BEIRUT, Lebanon - In the Arab world, the word Qana means one thing: the scene of an Israeli attack 10 years ago that killed more than 100 civilians.

Yesterday, after Israeli air strikes on that same southern Lebanese town killed at least 56 people -- more than half of them children -- Qana once again became the focal point of outrage at Israeli actions.

The ramifications of the Israeli attack on Qana -- the deadliest so far in 19 days of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel -- were immediate. Lebanese leaders flatly told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to visit Beirut, derailing her diplomatic efforts in the region and forcing her to return early to Washington. The United States announced that Israel had agreed to a 48-hour respite from the bombing to allow civilians to evacuate. In Beirut, several thousand protesters broke into the United Nations headquarters and briefly set fire to it.

The U.S.-backed Lebanese government, which has been working furiously during the past week to broker a cease-fire and deploy an international force in southern Lebanon, hardened its position. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said his government will not negotiate further until the world community forces Israel to accept a cease-fire.

"We will not negotiate until the Israeli war machine stops shedding the blood of innocent people," he told reporters. Saniora said he spoke by phone early yesterday with Rice, who was meeting with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, and told her to cancel her trip to Beirut.

For the first time since Hezbollah provoked a war by abducting two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, Arab leaders forcefully condemned the Israeli offensive after the Qana attack. Jordan's King Abdullah II, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel, called it an "ugly crime."

Many Arab leaders had distanced themselves from Hezbollah, saying it had engaged in "miscalculated adventures." But while Arab rulers had until yesterday been largely silent, their people have voiced strong support for Hezbollah and its charismatic leader, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah.

The latest killings in Qana are likely to intensify popular anger in the Arab and Muslim worlds, and motivate leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- the two main Arab powers -- to pressure the United States to back a quick cease-fire. So far, the Bush administration has given Israel free reign to pursue its offensive in Lebanon, despite mounting civilian casualties.

"Qana was already a powerful symbol in the Arab world, and it is only going to grow in importance," said Hazem Amin, a Lebanese editor at the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. "The Arab leaders can no longer sit by and watch the destruction of Lebanon."

In April 1996, at the height of an Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah, Israeli artillery shelled a UN base in Qana, killing more than 100 Lebanese civilians. About 800 civilians had taken refuge at the UN post to escape Israeli bombardment of their town. The attack provoked international condemnation and helped end the Israeli offensive.

The images of charred bodies -- many of them women and children -- being removed from the rubble of the UN base were etched in Arab memories. The attack became a rhetorical symbol of both Arab nationalists and Islamic militants. In August 1996, Osama bin Laden mentioned Qana in his first fatwa declaring war on the United States. "The horrifying pictures of the massacre of Qana, in Lebanon, are still fresh in our memory," the al-Qaida leader said in the edict urging Muslims worldwide to attack U.S. military and civilian targets.

At the site of the attack, the Syrian government funded a memorial and marble coffins for all those killed. The Arab poet Nizar Qabbani wrote a widely quoted ode, "The Face of Qana." And on the 10th anniversary of the attack, April 18, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah organized separate memorials. This year, the government set up a large tent in downtown Beirut with portraits of many of the victims and pieces of charred debris from the UN base.

Yesterday's attack could generate even more outrage in the Arab and Muslim worlds because, unlike 10 years ago, images of bodies being picked from the rubble were quickly broadcast on Arab satellite TV. Channels such as Al-Jazeera did not exist in 1996.

As the first images from Qana were broadcast yesterday morning, several thousand people besieged the UN headquarters in Beirut. They burned American and Israeli flags, and chanted: "Nasrallah, Destroy Tel Aviv," a reference to the Hezbollah leader's threat to launch missiles beyond northern Israel and into the center of the country.

The protesters pushed past Lebanese troops and broke into the UN building, smashing windows and destroying furniture. They also set a small fire, which was quickly extinguished. Several Hezbollah leaders at the scene urged the crowd to calm down and not to direct its anger at the United Nations.

Last night, the UN Security Council expressed "extreme shock and distress" over Israel's bombing of civilians in Qana but stopped short of condemning the attack.

President George W. Bush reiterated his position that a cease-fire should not take place until a "sustainable" agreement can be worked out.

"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," Bush said as he left the White House for a trip to Florida.

Craig Gordon of the Washington bureau contributed to this report.