An Israeli air strike today killed at least 54 Lebanese civilians, including at least 37 children, prompting widespread international condemnation.
The raid on the southern village of Qana was the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Hizbullah and rescuers said the death toll might rise.
Qana resident Mohammed Ismail
The victims, mainly old people, women and children, were among arouhnd 60 people sheltering from Israeli shelling in the basement of a three-storey building. Other houses were destroyed in the dawn raid, killing many people in their sleep.
"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. "May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," he said.
The strike was less than a kilometre from the mass grave of more than 100 Lebanese civilians killed in Qana in 1996 by Israel's shelling of a UN base. They too had been sheltering from bombardment.
Five Lebanese civilians, including two children, were killed by another Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Yaroun this afternoon, security sources said.
Israel said it targeted Qana, which is 11 kilometres from the border, because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli targets, including 40 that injured five Israelis today.
At an emergency session, 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," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep sorrow" for the loss of life but said the residents of Qana were warned and told to leave. "No one was ordered to fire on civilians and we have no policy of killing innocent people," Mr Olmert was quoted as saying. "The village and its surrounding areas were a source for launching hundreds of rockets."
A senior Israeli air force commander said the bomb was dropped on the building in Qana on the assumption it was sheltering Hizbullah crews and was unaware civilians were there. "Had we known there were that many civilians inside, especially woman and children, we certainly would not have attacked it," the commander said.
Hizbullah vowed to retaliate for the killing. "This horrific massacre will not go without a response," the group said in a statement.
Red Cross members pull bodies out from rubble after an Israeli air raid in Qana
The White House said the Qana incident was a tragedy that shows the critical need for Israel to take "the utmost care" to avoid civilian casualties. But the administration declined to call for an immediate cease-fire, saying only that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was working to arrange the conditions for a "sustainable" cease-fire soon.
The Lebanese government cancelled a planned visit to Beirut by Ms Rice following the Qana bombing. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would hold no negotiations before a ceasefire and officials said they had told Ms Rice to stay away from Beirut until the fighting stopped.
Before Lebanon cancelled her visit, Ms Rice had said she hoped for a deal on ceasefire terms to be outlined in a UN Security Council resolution that may be presented as early as Tuesday. Mr Olmert said his country was "in no rush" for a ceasefire, and Israeli forces thrust across the border sparking new clashes with Hizbullah fighters.
Mr Olmert told Ms Rice that Israel needed ten to 14 more days to continue its offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon, Mr Olmert's office said today.
At a news conference in Beirut, Mr Siniora called for unity "in the face of the Israeli war criminals". "The persistence of Israel in its heinous crimes against our civilians will not break the will of the Lebanese people," he said.
Around 2,000 people gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in Beirut today smashing windows and ransacking offices in a protest over the Israeli air strike. Witnesses said the crowd hurled stones and broke windows before some burst inside.
"Death to Israel, death to America. We sacrifice our blood and souls for Lebanon," protestors chanted. They tore down a United Nations flag outside the building and ripped it to shreds. Members of Hizbullah tried to restrain the crowd.
The air strike, whose target was not immediately clear, occurred as Ms Rice was in Jerusalem on a mission to persuade Israel and Lebanon to agree on an international force to deploy on the border.
Israeli warplanes struck Qana only hours after Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to rocket more cities in central Israel if attacks on Lebanon continued."There are many cities in central Israel which will come into target range ... if the barbaric aggression on our country and people continues," he said yesterday.
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Qana is already a potent symbol of Lebanese civilian deaths at the hands of Israel's military. In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at the base of UN peacekeepers in Qana.
At least 542 people have been killed in Lebanon in the war, although the Lebanese health minister estimated the toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. Some 51 Israelis have also been killed in the conflict that broke out after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12th.
Confirming a major new incursion into Lebanon today, the Israeli military said tanks and troops had rolled across the border at Metula, under cover artillery fire and air strikes, to try to find and destroy Hizbullah rocket launchers. An Israeli army spokeswoman said five Hizbullah fighters were killed.
Agencies