Israelis attack Qana, again.

QANA, Lebanon (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed at least 35 Lebanese civilians, including 21 children, in the southern village of Qana on Sunday, in the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbollah.

Several houses collapsed and a three-storey building where about 100 civilians were sheltering was destroyed, witnesses and rescue workers said. Distraught people screamed in grief and anger amid the rubble of wrecked buildings.

Israel's military said it had warned residents of Qana to leave and said Hizbollah bore responsibility for using it to fire rockets at the Jewish state.

In April 1996, Israeli shelling of a base of U.N. peacekeepers in Qana killed more than 100 civilians sheltering there during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" bombing campaign.

The deadly air strike, whose target was not immediately clear, occurred as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Jerusalem on a mission to persuade Israel and Lebanon to agree on an international force to deploy on the border.

At least 518 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 51 Israelis have been killed in the conflict that erupted after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
As Rice made her second trip to the region in a week, Hizbollah fighters battled Israeli soldiers making a new thrust into southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.

Rice said she hoped for a deal on ceasefire terms to be outlined in a U.N. Security Council resolution that could be tabled as early as Tuesday.

"We still have quite a bit of heavy lifting," an official travelling with Rice said on condition of anonymity. He declined to say what the sticking points were.

After meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday evening, Rice held talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday. She is expected to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Beirut later during her trip.

In a further sign of intensifying diplomacy to end the war, France -- emerging as the international force's potential leader -- drafted a Security Council resolution that would call for an immediate truce and prepare for the peace mission.

DRAFT RESOLUTION

The document, distributed to the 15 Security Council members and obtained by Reuters, anticipated a draft resolution the United States was planning that would place up to 20,000 peacekeepers along Lebanon's borders with Israel and with Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will preside over a meeting on Monday of possible troop contributors, including the 25-member European Union, Turkey and nations now contributing to a small U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in Lebanon since 1978.

Sunday's clashes erupted when Israeli soldiers crossed the Israeli border towards the town of Khiam. Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded the Shi'ite town while guerrillas fired rockets at northern Israel, Lebanese security sources said.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoted defence sources as saying the army had orders to accelerate its offensive, assuming it had another seven to 10 days before it had to stop fighting.
Israel says it had killed at least 200 Hizbollah guerrillas. Hizbollah says only 31 of its fighters have died in the war.

An estimated 750,000 people in Lebanon have fled their homes.

The United States has faced mounting criticism across the world for not calling for an immediate ceasefire and for giving Israel an apparent green light to press on with its offensive.

U.S. President George W. Bush blames the conflict on Hizbollah and its main allies, Syria and Iran.

The guerrilla group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused Rice of serving only Israel's interests and threatened to order more rocket strikes in central Israel.

"There are many cities in central Israel which will come into target range ... if the barbaric aggression on our country and people continues," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

An Israeli political source said Rice did not pressure Olmert for an immediate ceasefire but did urge Israel not to attack Lebanon's infrastructure. They agreed Hizbollah must release the two Israeli soldiers as part of any deal.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau)

Al Jazeera: At least 20 children are believed to be among more than 40 civilians killed after an Israeli raid destroyed a building in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, Aljazeera's correspondent reports.

Scenes Of Israeli Massacre In Qana 1996
This video of an Israeli Massacre of Palestinian & Lebanese civilians in April of 96 is very graphic and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

Robert Fisk's, Eyewitness Report From 1996: Massacre in Sanctuary