JERUSALEM (AFX) - Israel on Sunday ordered an inquiry into the killing of dozens of civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana, with one official suggesting the lethal blast could have been caused by Hezbollah explosives.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the army to conduct an immediate investigation of the raid, ordering it to 'without delay examine the circumstances of this incident,' a spokesman said.
'It is a tragic event, a result of the war against Hezbollah, a movement that operates in the heart of civilian population centers knowing perfectly well that it is putting them in danger,' he said.
Senior air force officer Amir Eshel told journalists that Israeli aircraft had targeted the site where more than 52 civilians were killed, many of them children, seven hours before what he said was the deadly blast.
'As far as we understand, this building was attacked between midnight and 1 am, some seven hours before it sustained the serious hit,' he said.
'The first reports (of casualties) arrived between 8 and 8:30,' he said.
All the witness accounts obtained by AFP said that the first bombardment of the shelter took place at 1:00 am followed by a second raid 10 minutes later, causing the building to collapse.
'There was a first bombardment at 1:00 am,' said resident Ghazi Aaidibi. 'A few people went out of the shelter and about 10 minutes later a second bombardment destroyed it. There were 63 people inside.'
Rescue services only arrived at daybreak owing to the intensity of the bombardment.
Eshel said the Israeli army had targeted several sites 500 meters away from the building, but all of the strikes had hit their designated targets, he said.
'We attacked several targets with precision bombs. All the targets were fully hit and all the bombs hit the targets. We know this from the plane crews' testimonies and aerial photography,' he said.
Trying to put his finger on the cause of the explosion, Eshel said that 'maybe we will never know what happened. Maybe there were Hezbollah weapons inside the building.' newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/ak COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited