Kfar Qana massacre may strike back at Israel

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TEL AVIV. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya) - News of the death of about 60 people, about half of them children, in Kfar Qana in southern Lebanon shocked the world, including Israel. The tragedy further complicated the situation in the conflict zone and endangered the ceasefire talks.

It happened on the day when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to fly from Jerusalem to Beirut to discuss a UN Security Council resolution that would satisfy all sides and stop the war.

Israeli diplomats have told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the agreement would not be signed soon, and discussions covered only the potential format of the talks. They have been stopped by the Kfar Qana tragedy. Rice's visit to Lebanon was cancelled, and the ceasefire terms and timeframe will most likely change now, and not in Israel's favor.

Taken together, these developments point to the conclusion that the Kfar Qana tragedy could be planned.

"It could be a provocation, a frame-up," an Israeli diplomat accompanying a group of journalists around northern Israel said emotionally.

Kfar Qana became a symbol of "Israeli aggression" for many Lebanese and other Arabs in 1996, when a UN observer-mission facility, where the local villagers took shelter, was inadvertently hit in an Israeli strike against Hezbollah. The death toll was about 100. The international community mounted pressure on Israel, which had to stop the operation without attaining its objective.

It may have to do the same again.

The Israeli government refuses to discuss a ceasefire and has asked for at least 10-14 more days to conclude the military operation. Rice claims the ceasefire agreement will be signed this week, but Israel has agreed only to call a truce for 48 hours to investigate the tragedy.

It has admitted to shooting at a residential housing block, but claims that a missile had been launched at Israel from that building. According to the Israeli military, the strike was delivered at around midnight, but the building collapsed only 7-8 hours later.

"Why didn't the people leave a building that had been damaged? Have you seen anyone remain in a severely damaged building in your country?" an Israeli solider asked a RIA Novosti correspondent. "Do you think I like hearing about it, or pleased to learn that non-combatants have died?"

Doctor Eugene from the Naharia Hospital said: "We feel sorry for the Lebanese, we are sorry that innocent people are dying, but this is a war." Like many other Israelis, he adds: "Our army is most careful and humane; we warn civilians about forthcoming strikes, but they are hostages of Hezbollah."

The doctor is showing me around the hospital, part of which was destroyed by Lebanese missiles. Many people in Israel, especially its northern regions that suffer daily missile attacks by Hezbollah, feel sorry for the Lebanese. "We are in the same boat," they say.

But the Lebanese don't need Israelis' sympathies or apologies. Nothing will change even if the Israeli military prove their innocence in the Kfar Qana tragedy, because according to Lebanese authorities, more than 700 of its people have been killed in Israeli strikes. Even if some Lebanese accept the Israeli argument that the situation was provoked by Hezbollah, they will not forgive Israel.

The results of Israel's investigation are not important to the international community either, because this will not raise the dead. Israel can give itself a sore throat saying that such tragic incidents sometimes happen during a war, and that the United States has hit non-combatants several times in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet nobody forced it to stop its operations there. It can say this again and again, but nothing will change.

The ceasefire issue was put on the agenda before Kfar Qana, and now the international community can use it to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire sooner and with bigger concessions. The UN Security Council and Hezbollah will do their best to hold Israel to the decision, which may have little time left to change the situation on the Lebanese border in its favor.

Judging by current developments, there will be more Kfar Qanas and more shells falling on Israel.

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